Zoroark's Pendant
by SnowLucario
Summary: A young man discovers a stabbed Lucario on the road. Finding out that an item on the Lucario's person is a pendant with a Zoroark head on it, the socially awkward teen tries to live his life. However, the pendant changes his life in ways that he would never expect. Anthro, Pokémorph apply. Rated T for blood/language. I don't own the cover picture, credit goes to FoxJosh1. Enjoy!
1. The Encounter

**Hello, it is SnowLucario. Yes, that rhymes. No, I do not care if that sounds corny.**

 **I decided that I'd work on one chapter of this, one chapter of Four Seasons. I'm hitting a bit of writer's block with that other story, but have no plans to discontinue it. So many of you guys have been depending on me, and I fully intend to finish it. After all, I do know how it will end.**

 **To those of you who are new to my stories, you do not need to read Wing And A Scare, Bounding Through Time, or any of my Hunger Games stories to understand this one. This is completely different, a new take on things. The first chapter is pretty short, but they will get larger.**

 **My goal is 100 reviews, 30 favorites, and 50 follows. I'd like to reach it, but don't favorite it JUST to meet that goal. Make sure you actually like the story first. With that in mind, let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

Before this story begins, I would like to introduce myself.

My name is Lucas London, and I am seventeen years old. Until recently, I lived a relatively normal, upper middle class life in northern New England. It wasn't perfect, but I was able to deal with it. I never did intend to become a Pokémon trainer, instead preferring to be more of an intellectual. I'm not one of those stereotypical nerds with glasses, but I am nerdy about certain things.

This is a story of friendship, adventure, and angst. It's also a story of hope and loss. It will move you, make you laugh, cry, and shake your fists. It's a powerful story to be sure, and I don't want to waste any time getting into it.

So, when does this story begin? I suppose it begins the day I discovered a Lucario on the street.

* * *

"See you later, Lucas!" called my friend from the front steps of my school.

"You too, Zach!" I said.

Normally, my friend and I would hang out together and play video games. Today was the first day of school, however, and both of us were feeling pretty tired. Even though we were in classes with many of the same people as last year, that didn't seem to mean anything in the eyes of the school administrators. They insisted that we do activities intended to help us get to know each other first, which was laughable in my opinion. I already knew all of those other people.

Backpack over my shoulders, I began jogging towards home, passing by lanes of pine trees. The town of Hanover, New Hampshire has a very good reputation for a reason. It's a very nice place to live, so it's really no wonder that it is so expensive. Everyone wants to live here.

Was there something on the back of my backpack, or was it just me? I wasn't quite sure, but it felt like something was running down the backs of my legs...something cold. It wasn't ice, not _that_ cold.

I took my backpack off. Just as I suspected, it was an egg that someone had thrown at me. The yellow yolk in the middle was still on the backpack, and the white part was dripping down the back of my pants. I could hear laughter behind me...no wonder. Johnny and his cronies must have been at it again. And, really, I was used to it. I was bullied quite frequently, called Aspie, or Mr. L. Really, Lucas is enough to call me, thank you very much, but when all three of your initials are the same letter, it's kind of hard not to get made fun of.

Another thing that set me apart? I didn't have any Pokémon partners. While many of my classmates aspired to become trainers, or breeders, I was not one of them. I was just a nobody, a loner, a nerd. This, despite the fact that I've never worn glasses, or braces, or anything else associated with being nerdy. Of course, I'll probably have to start wearing glasses eventually, but that's not relevant to this story.

Anyways...the egg. Because I was wearing black pants, the white of the egg really did stick out. No matter what, if I turned up at home smelling like egg, or tracking it into the house, my mother would not be happy with me. Then again, it seemed that she rarely was.

I _had_ to get the stain off my pants. Opening my backpack, I saw something that would do- a piece of scrap paper from math class. I took it out and wiped the egg off as I went. I was only three blocks from my house, and I knew that my parents were going to get suspicious if I was gone too much longer than normal.

 _There!_

I got the egg white on my towel, and then saw some drip off and mix with something red on the ground...dark red.

Blood sure is a strange color. Particularly when it's mixed with egg yolk.

Wait...was that a _Lucario?_ I supposed that I lived far enough north for them to be common; there was even one of my friends at school who had one. But I didn't expect to see this one, lying on the ground, bleeding.

I'm not an altruistic person; I'm the first to admit that I'm pretty selfish at times. But it would be hard for anyone not to help a Lucario who seemed to be in such a poor state. I didn't know what had happened to it, but I was quick to ask it a question.

"What happened?"

"Stabbed" the Lucario said through aura. "It's...ah, it hurts so bad".

"Hold on. I'll get you help".

I dialed 911, and, after Officer Jenny asked me what my emergency was, I stated, "There's a Lucario on Enfield Street. He got stabbed, he says. He's bleeding a lot, please come and get him!"

While I waited for the ambulance to come, I looked over at the Lucario. It was carrying a Social Security card that identified it as SAMUEL CRANMORE. An odd name for a Lucario, but it wasn't a time to care.

I grabbed some pine cones and tried to stop the bleeding, but it wasn't working. It was still coming out, and I was relieved when the ambulance finally arrived. It seemed like a long time to me, but was probably not more than ten minutes or so.

"Let's get a stretcher!" yelled one of the nurses. Looking down at me, she said, "You! London! Help me get him on!"

I'm not the strongest person, but I managed to get Lucario onto the stretcher. I wasn't surprised that the paramedic knew my last name; she'd gotten the call from me. I helped lift its head in order to get it onto the stretcher. It was heavier than I thought, and taller than I was as well. This is saying something, considering I stand 6 feet, 2 inches tall.

"You can ride with us to the hospital if you want to. Would you like to do that?"

I nodded before climbing in. Whipping out my iPhone, I texted my mother, _I'M NOT AVOIDING YOU ON PURPOSE. I'M JUST GOING TO THE HOSPITAL WITH A LUCARIO I SAW THAT GOT STABBED. IT'S OKAY. I'M NOT TRYING TO RUN AWAY FROM HOME OR ANYTHING._

I hit "send" and sighed. Hopefully this would satisfy Mom that I wasn't doing something naughty, I was just trying to help a Lucario I'd seen on the road. Yes, that was what I was doing.

"What's its blood type?"

"I don't know. O negative just in case, that's what we're going to do".

I watched as one of the medics inserted an IV into Lucario's arm and got some blood going into its body. Another medic was hastily trying to bandage its chest, but it clearly wasn't working. I really hoped that this Lucario wasn't going to die. My only consolation was that I had not been responsible.

The necessary electrodes were attached to its chest to record its heart rate, and I was trying to relax. If anything happened to its heart rate, the medics would be onto it right away. Luckily, I didn't hear the heart monitor flatline the whole time I was in the ambulance, so that was a good thing.

Once we did get to the hospital, I walked inside the waiting room as I watched the Lucario get wheeled into surgery. The anesthesia mask had been placed over its face, and I felt a buzz from my phone.

The text read, OKAY. LUCAS LEONARD LONDON, YOU ARE OFF THE HOOK THIS TIME...SO LONG AS YOU CAN PROVE IT.

I stiffened up. How was I going to prove that the Lucario had gotten stabbed? Surely they'd have heard the sirens; they were hell on my autistic ears, but maybe their normal ears would not have been quite as sensitive to them. I wasn't really sure.

I took a picture of the emergency department and waiting room that included doctors in scrubs, several patients in wheelchairs, carrying IVs, or both, and several signs. This would be enough for pretty much anybody except an ultra-skeptic to accept as proof, I should think.

Sitting in a chair in the waiting room, I started browsing the Internet, looking for a pair of pants that looked good. I didn't know if the egg stain was ever going to completely disappear, but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to order anything off of Amazon without my parents' permission.

After about an hour, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

Turning around, I saw that it was my little sister, Michelle. She's three years younger than me, and she's nice enough, especially today. She was a real champ that day, coming to visit the Lucario at the hospital.

"I heard that a Lucario got stabbed, and you came here to visit. Is that true?"

"Michelle, you know how OCD I am. I'd never set foot inside of a hospital willingly, except for something like this" I said, rolling my eyes.

After about another hour, a doctor came back out. "Lucas London?"

"At your service" I said, taking a bow.

"No need for that" Michelle said. Sometimes, she acts like she's older than me, which can be quite infuriating. I know that she's only doing that so that I appear more normal in public, but sometimes I feel that it's just not justified.

"In any case", said the doctor, clearing his throat, "the Lucario, identified as Samuel Cranmore, is stable. We have cleaned his wound, although we did have to give him three bags of blood. You may come upstairs and see him in the ICU now".

"Let's go follow him" Michelle said. I nodded, and we began walking along the hallways of the hospital. At a certain point, they all blended together, with the same white tiles for flooring, and the same white walls with holes to the ceiling. Really, you've seen it all before.

"Do you know who stabbed him?" the doctor asked me.

"I wish I did" I said. "Trust me when I say that I know absolutely nothing more than you guys do".

We reached the Intensive Care Unit, and we saw Samuel on the bed. One thing was for sure, he looked worse for wear.

The Lucario was wrapped in so many bandages that they could have been used as a rock climbing harness. He looked like some kind of alien with all of the IVs he was connected to. I felt a spark of rage at whoever had the _audacity_ to do this. Who would stab an innocent Lucario like that?

I heard something about needing to give the Lucario antibiotics because of the pine cones being rubbed into its wound, and I started to feel guilty. Had I not done that, one or more of those tubes might have been unnecessary. As it was, Samuel was fast asleep at the moment. Probably they were sedating him until he became a little more stable, but I wasn't concerned about that.

Suddenly, the door opened behind us, and the doctor came in. It was a different doctor than the one that had given my sister and I the update about Samuel's surgery, but he had a serious expression on his face all the same.

"We found this on Samuel Cranmore. We have no idea what this is, but do you?"

I looked at it.

It seemed to be some sort of necklace. It looked kind of like the Immunity Necklace from _Survivor,_ except that, where the centerpiece would be, there was a gargoyle of Zoroark's head.

"No" I said. "I didn't notice it. Michelle?"

"I have no idea what's going on" she said. "All I know is that my idiot brother just found a Lucario and, being the altruistic idiot that he is, decided to ride with it to the hospital. That's it".

Looking over at the necklace once again, I saw that there was a red gleam in its eye. I knew that Zoroarks were masters of illusions, but this was something different. At least, it seemed to be.

I started to feel light-headed and hot all of a sudden. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I felt like I was going to pass out all of a sudden. This wasn't good...

Before I could say anything, my knees buckled.

* * *

 **I've only stayed in hospital once since I was a newborn (feel free to ask me, I'm an open book), but I did walk through one just yesterday, so I hope I described the scene accurately. If not, please let me know!**

 **I also don't want to make you guys think I own the cover picture, because I don't.**

 _Question: Where are you reading this from? This is just my standard first question for my stories, so yeah._


	2. The Mirror

**All right! We are now going to raise the bar with Chapter 2 of Zoroark's Pendant! In this chapter, I will start distinguishing between whose POV it is, just to make things more clear.**

 _Answer: I meant this to be along the lines of "where do you live?", but people always said what device they were using. I suppose that I read fanfiction from my iPad, write it from the laptop that I got for Christmas. (Yes, I'm an atheist. Yes, we can still celebrate Christmas)._

 _Question: Where do you live? Just country or region, not city._

 **I'm also going to respond to reviewers! They will be listed alphabetically by username.**

 **hollowman96: You'll have to find out. Glad you're enjoying it!**

 **HoppsHungerfan: This is not the Lucas from the Pokémon games. This is an OC.**

 **Thank you guys for 100 views! That's a good milestone to start with.**

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV** _  
_

Looking back on it, it wasn't logical for what happened to happen. Normally, people don't collapse when they see a necklace with a Zoroark head on it. That's just not usual, but more on that later.

I opened my eyes to find myself looking up at a white ceiling, with bright lights. Trying to remember where I was, my brain was working overtime.

"Lucas? Can you hear me?" asked a male voice.

I looked around me. I was lying in a hospital room, on a bunch of pillows. Someone must have placed them underneath me after I had passed out, which explained why my body didn't hurt like hell. I seemed to be on the floor, or right above it, not on a bed.

"What...happened?" I managed to croak. My mouth felt surprisingly dry for having only been out for...however long it had been.

"You just passed out" Michelle said.

"I could ask you what happened" said the doctor standing next to me. "Do _you_ have to be admitted as well? Because there's plenty more beds in this hospital".

"I'm good, thank you very much" I said, sitting up. "Could I just have some water?"

"That request will be granted" said the doctor. A nurse went over and filled a cup from a bubbler, handing it to me.

I drank the water greedily. "So, what did happen?" I asked the doctor.

"Pretty much just what your sister said. You seemed to go crazy, and just fainted. We caught you, though. You've only been out for about a minute".

"Wonderful" I said. "Just wonderful".

"What's going to happen?" Michelle asked. "Are you going to admit him or something?"

"That depends" said the doctor. "Does he have a history of fainting episodes?"

"I think it was just a fluke thing" I said. "Really, it's not a problem".

The doctor went over to a computer and began sifting through what I assumed was my medical records. Really, I wasn't quite sure.

"I think we can let him go" the doctor said. "He doesn't have a history of this, just like he said. Just make sure he eats a nice dinner and drinks plenty of fluids".

"Trust me", Michelle said, "Lucas eats like a horse. I swear, he must still be growing two inches a year. He's going to be _crazy_ tall".

"In any case, your mother has been notified. She is going to come pick you guys up, will be there within the next few minutes. Are you sure you can go home, Lucas?"

"It's cool" I said, pointing at the unconscious Lucario on the bed. "I'm not in nearly as bad shape as he is".

"True, true" said the doctor.

After that, my sister and I walked down to the lobby of the hospital. We looked at all of the other patients, many of whom didn't seem to be in nearly as bad shape as the Lucario I had saved earlier. Really, it was kind of depressing that it had been injured so badly, but it was getting the help that it needed to recover. At this point, I shouldn't really be worried about Samuel Cranmore.

Finally, my mother came. She looked over at me and Michelle, and said, "All right, guys. Let's go home, your father is not going to be happy".

Based on what she had texted me back after I had texted her about going with the Lucario to the hospital, I had thought that my mother was fine with it. Evidently, I was wrong. What price would there be to pay when we got home?

"I mean, really, we were terrified when we found out that you were going to be late getting home, Lucas. You didn't _need_ to help that Lucario, you could just have left it to die. That would have been the best thing to do. Why worry your own parents?"

"Mom, I'm not a child anymore. I'm seventeen, and you know that".

"Of course, I know your birth date. What I'm wondering is, what possessed you to travel to the hospital _with_ the Lucario?" she said sternly.

I didn't see the point of arguing with her anymore. I wasn't going to win, after all. Besides, I hoped that she would eventually come around and see my side of things. There was a certain degree of uncertainty about that, but the hope was still there.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

Up until that point, I had had a fairly uneventful day. Really, not much of interest was happening.

Of course, there was the certain intrigue that came with it being the first day of eighth grade for me. The middle school was right next to the high school, so Lucas had sometimes walked home with me. Neither of us could drive yet, myself because I was too young, Lucas because he had never bothered to go to driver's ed.

Today, we weren't doing that. I was hanging out at the house of my friend Olivia, during which we were watching reruns of _My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic._ Olivia had even brought her Eevee into the room with us, and I was taking the opportunity to pet her. We were having a very good time with getting over our first day of school.

"Is this the part where she kisses him?" I asked Olivia. I wasn't at all familiar with the show, but I could only assume that was going to happen.

"Yes, it is" my best friend said.

Olivia also had an older brother, but he played on the varsity league in lacrosse, so he wasn't at home right now. By contrast, my own brother _was_ at home, while I wasn't.

As we continued to enjoy the show, drinking root beer, my phone rumbled in my pocket.

"I think I just got a text" I said. Looking at the screen of the phone, I saw that it was from Lucas. What had my brother gotten into this time?

The text read, _I FOUND A STABBED LUCARIO ON THE ROAD NEAR OUR HOUSE. I'M RIDING WITH IT TO THE HOSPITAL, SO I'LL BE HOME A LITTLE LATE TODAY._

"What?"

"Let me take a look" Olivia said. She looked at the screen, and she instantly knew what it was that was going on. "Wow, that's not good. Are you going to go home now?"

The thought of leaving my friend's house wasn't even on my mind until then. At that point, however, I knew that this was what I was going to do. As much as I was enjoying watching _Friendship Is Magic_ with Olivia, a show that it could be argued we were both too old for, I wanted to help out my brother, if he really did need help.

"I'm going" I said. "I have to".

Olivia nodded. I could see that she understood, and knew that I was going to come over tomorrow if I could.

I got on my bike, a light purple seven-speeder with a basket on it, and began pedaling for home, which was only about half a mile away. As soon as I had made the quick detour to get home, I was going to tell my parents what was going on, and then I was going to meet Lucas at the hospital.

* * *

Half an hour later, I was standing at the entrance to the hospital. Knowing that it might be difficult to find Lucas, I decided to go to the front desk and ask where the Lucario was.

"Excuse me? Where is the Lucario that got stabbed?" There was a high Lucario population in the White Mountains, so it was very possible that there might indeed be another one in the hospital. But I was deciding to assume that was probably not true.

"He's in the ICU, which is room 54C. Just go up there, and you'll find him".

I started to head up the stairs to the room, which was on the third floor. When I was there, I noticed that there was someone I recognized back in the waiting. That fluffy, light brown hair, the tall stature...yes, it was my brother.

I tapped him on the shoulder, but he was completely engrossed in whatever he was looking at online. Really, Lucas can be like that a lot of the time, so it was no big surprise. Sometimes completely engrossed, sometimes not interested at all.

Eventually, he turned to face me.

"I heard that a Lucario got stabbed, and you came here to visit. Is that true?" I said.

"Michelle, you know how OCD I am. I'd never step foot inside a hospital willingly, except for something like this" he said, rolling his eyes at me.

Eventually, the doctor came back out, telling us that the Lucario, whose real name turned out to be Samuel Cranmore, was stable, although he had needed three blood transfusions. Right now, we were just glad to hear that it was still alive.

"Let's go up there and see him" I said.

We followed the doctor up to the room that the Lucario was in, and we saw just how bad it was. He was absolutely _covered_ in bandages, and you could still see some blood underneath them. There were several IVs running into Samuel the Lucario, and it was such a pitiful scene. It should be noted that I hate hospitals almost as much as my brother does, but for a different reason.

Lucas is primarily a selfish person, and he makes no bones about it. Whenever he is at a hospital, whether as a patient getting a check-up or as a visitor, he's always worried about catching something from one of the patients who actually has a problem. Whenever _I_ am at a hospital, my heart always goes out to everyone there. It's kind of depressing, and this was what turned me into an atheist. Dan Barker said it best, "All you have to do is walk into any children's hospital, and you know there is no god".

I was pretty surprised, based on what I knew about my brother, that he would do that, that he would call for help for the poor Lucario. I supposed, however, that this was the way it went. He could be selfless when he wanted to be, and I supposed that this was one of those times.

As soon as we were in the room, the doctor came over and showed us a beautiful necklace with a bust of a Zoroark's head on it. Apparently the Lucario had been wearing it when he had been stabbed. It looked pretty ordinary, other than the fact that it was so ornate. I didn't know what it had been doing on this Lucario's neck.

Out of nowhere, a little bit of red light came out of its eyes. I noticed Lucas, who seemed to start sweating as soon as he had seen it. He fell backwards, but I managed to catch him just in time. It was pretty shocking to see him pass out like that!

For a moment, I'd thought that he'd have to be admitted as well. However, he had quickly turned out to be fine, and so we'd gone on home.

* * *

Dinner was pretty awkward that night. It was clear that my parents were still not very happy about my brother, just because of what he had done. He might have texted my mother, but it didn't seem to matter.

Even though he was always reminded about table manners, he reached for the chicken without asking for it to be passed to him. This wasn't something he usually forgot, but I suppose he was just under a lot of stress today. Of course, both of us were. It's not every day you see a Lucario get stabbed.

There wasn't much conversation going on, either. Really, both of us were just waiting until we could go up to our rooms and not think about this for a while. It was just far too upsetting to think about the possible implications. Was there a murderer in Hanover? Would they target humans as well? There was just no way to know.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

It was a relief when dinner was over. As soon as my sister and I were dismissed, we both went up to our rooms and didn't look back. As much as I loved Michelle, she could be irritating sometimes. I just wanted some time to think to myself.

What had happened to the Lucario earlier was regrettable. It had been stabbed pretty badly, and it was not in a good state at all. I'd called the ambulance to save it, and it seemed to be fine now. However, the fact remained that things hadn't exactly gone perfectly from there on out.

Right now, my parents were barely talking to me. This was no surprise. I had never been a target of abuse, but my parents definitely seemed to love my sister more than me. I had no idea why it was. Maybe I was just harder to raise than she was, with my having Asperger's, but it was just the way things were going. None of us had any control over it.

I sat on my bed, crossing my arms over my chest, brooding at the ceiling. At the moment, I wasn't really liking my life.

Admittedly, it had been pretty embarrassing to pass out in front of my sister and those doctors. To my knowledge, I was not dehydrated, underfed, or anything else. My parents weren't neglecting me, as much as they did favor Michelle.

Why _did_ my parents favor Michelle? I wasn't sure, and I didn't know how I would find out. It wasn't like I could just ask them, I thought, watching the sky darken outside of my bedroom. Soon enough, it would be time to get ready for bed (my usual bedtime was 10:00 sharp).

I decided to put on my pajamas, which I did. Then, I saw something that looked unusual in my mirror in my bathroom. _What was that?_

I didn't know what I had just seen. To do that, I would have to go closer to my mirror, something I was reluctant to do. But I wanted to know the truth above all, so into my bathroom I went.

Staring into the mirror, I noticed something strange.

There were parts of my hair that seemed to be dark red as opposed to its usual brown.


	3. Pokémon Revival

**Here we go! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Here are my responses to you guys. By the way, the title of this chapter comes from a Pokémon fanfiction that has gotten popular.**

 **Cosmicsafe74: Glad you're enjoying it! Here's another chapter for you.**

 **DisastrousDwarf: You'll have to see!**

 **Hoppshungerfan: You'll have to wait and see :)**

 **Rocker on (guest): I don't know where to begin, since you don't have a profile. I'm not the only person who has asked you to get one over the last few years. Suffice it to say that I'm glad you reviewed and, should you PM me as a user (there's a waiting period after you create an account), I'll be more than willing to address each point individually.**

 _Answer: I live in the United States, in the region known as New England. The weather here is pretty nice most of the time, and I do carry a slight accent. Not that major, but it's there._

 _Question: If you could be any Pokémon for a day, which would it be?_

 **If you have any character ideas, or Pokémon you want to see in the story, just PM me with your suggestion (including age, gender, name, and Pokémon team) and I will incorporate it in any way I can. With that in mind, let's get this thing going!**

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

The first thing I registered was pain. Pain in a way that would have you on your knees, praying for Arceus to just strike you down already so that you would be able to no longer feel such pain. Pain that brought to mind images from torture scenes in a _Harry Potter_ book or movie.

Then, I was able to open my eyes. There was still quite a bit of pain, but my aura had been able to sense where I was. This is thanks to the fact that I am a Lucario, meaning that I can see a short distance around myself through using the aura that is in all living things, even with my eyes closed.

I was able to register that I was in a hospital bed, lying on top of the blankets. There was a slight itch on my chest due to the heart monitor that was connected to me, as well as several IVs. I wasn't comfortable by any means, but everything did have somewhat of a dreamy quality due to the sheer amount of pain medication coursing through my veins. This made my eyes, as well as my aura sensing organs, feel extremely heavy.

My waking triggered the heart monitor to increase, even though I had been able to conclude that there was no imminent danger to me. I was just in a hospital, hoping for the doctors there to use their technology to help mend me.

"Good evening, Samuel. I see that you are awake".

I couldn't talk. For one, it hurt to open my mouth. Also, there was the fact that my stomach hurt everywhere. Not the type that came from eating too much, or from being sick. No, this was something else entirely...yes, I remembered now.

I'd been stabbed. Yes, that was what had happened.

"I am awake" I said using aura. "What is it you want to tell me?"

"It is that you were seriously injured. You were stabbed, with a knife, in the stomach, which we had to suture back up. We barely managed to keep you from going into cardiac arrest".

"Well, it's good that you were able to avoid that. I rather like this thing that we call life".

The doctor chuckled slightly. "In any case, the surgery was successful, although you did require three blood transfusions. You are expected to survive, although the medical costs are quite high. Do you have insurance? Does your trainer?"

That's the thing...I _don't_ have a trainer. As far as I can remember, I've never been a Pokémon who was owned by a human being. It just wasn't working that way, and I never wanted it to.

Of course, if I lied and said that I did have health insurance, they'd have a way of knowing that I was not telling the truth. And then there were going to be consequences, ones that would be extremely far-reaching. The only answer that would not create a huge mess would be to tell the truth, admit that I was uninsured, and deal with the costs.

"I do not" I said.

"Very well" the doctor said. "We're obligated to treat you, but the bill is going to be $62,442. You'd have to be adopted by someone else. Do you have a trainer _at all?_ "

"No" I admitted.

"Very well. I think that you could join the family who brought you in here, then. They are the Londons, correct?"

"I don't know. I was unconscious, you know that".

"Well, we're going to have the Londons adopt you. The paperwork will no doubt be done quite quickly, because Caleb and Denise have always wanted to have a pet Lucario. I think that you will find a good home there".

The doctor nodded as he said that last sentence, and he left to go over to his desk, which was located within the ICU. I didn't know precisely how sanitary that was, but I was willing to deal with it. After all, part of being a Fighting type is that your body can get over injuries and infections faster. It's because of the aura in your system. And I was no normal Lucario, after all.

As soon as the doctor had left, I began to feel very sleepy. Perhaps they had upped the dosage of my pain medication, or maybe I was just tired from everything I had been through today.

In any case, I soon fell asleep.

* * *

 _~~~Flashback (3 weeks ago)~~~_

 _Samuel walked along the avenue. He was still an ordinary guy back then, an ordinary teenager who was going into his junior year of high school. The pine trees...the smell of the mountain air...yes, he loved this part of the country._

 _One day, he was on the bus ride home from school when it happened. He went to a private school, so Lucas London had never heard of him. He didn't go to school with the Londons, not at all._

 _He'd been walking along the street when he noticed the necklace. It looked, on paper, like it was nothing extraordinary. Really, it could have been anything someone had left on the road. If anything, it looked like an enormous retainer; not something too crazy. Granted, that_ would _have been crazy, but the point was that it looked like something that one might encounter on a daily basis._

 _However, it was clearly a necklace. The front of the necklace contained the head of a Zoroark on it, and its eyes looked extremely intensely at Samuel..._

* * *

I woke up in the middle of the night. I had been told not to move too much when I woke up, so as not to disturb my IVs. They were, I was told, necessary for me to recover. I wasn't going to protest them if that was the case, so the doctors didn't really have to worry about that. In fact, I was willing to be a model patient, if only those nightmares would leave me alone.

The thing was, however, that they weren't just _dreams._ These were far more vivid than those, and I knew why. I knew what my dreams were of; that was the scary part.

I was having flashbacks to my past.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The next morning, my family was gathered around the breakfast table. Yes, my family is one of the rare ones that actually eats every meal together. It's not something that one would typically expect, but this was just the way things worked. Personally, I normally didn't mind this.

Michelle was putting some bacon on her toast as I stuck to the fruit salad. Even though I'm not religious, I don't eat bacon. I don't know why this is, I've just never really liked pork. It wasn't my thing.

Suddenly, I felt a severe pain in my legs. I'd had growing pains before, but this was something else. It felt like my leg was shaking, and my very bones were on fire. (If you stretch out your leg and keep on pushing, you can simulate this feeling to a certain degree, something I would not recommend). It felt as though my legs were trying to grow more, and I visibly grimaced.

"Uh...Lucas...are you okay?" Michelle asked me.

I nodded, trying not to betray my anguish. Even my parents seemed worried about me. It was a similar look to what the doctors had given me when I'd passed out in front of them.

"Yeah...just...might have pulled a muscle".

"That kind of sucks" my younger sister said.

I also felt hungrier than usual, which was ironic. Usually severe pain could cause nausea, but this wasn't going to be like that, I could tell that much. This was something very, _very_ different.

My stomach rumbled. However, I didn't want to pig out in front of everyone else. I ate a lot, but not _that_ much. My parents would definitely think that something was up if I did.

"Well, I think we should be heading to school in just a few minutes" Michelle said.

"Just one thing" my father replied.

We both sat back down at the table. "What is it?" I asked.

"You know the Lucario you rode with to the hospital yesterday, Lucas?" my mother asked me.

"Yeah? What about him?" I said.

"He doesn't have health insurance, so the doctors were wondering if you wanted to adopt him...".

"Mom, it's all I can do to take care of _myself,_ now you want me to take care of a-".

"-and I already said yes and signed the paperwork. As soon as Samuel Cranmore is released from the hospital, we are going to take him in, and he is going to sleep in your room, on an air mattress. Like I said, it has all already been figured out".

I was going to argue more with my mom, but it was pointless. When Denise London is dead set on something, you'd better believe that she's _dead set_ on it. There's no changing her mind.

However, I was still thinking about the implications of having a Lucario in the home. Would he eat the same things we ate, or would it have to eat Pokémon food? Would it be aggressive, or more passive? There was no way to tell, except that I was about to find out, whether I liked it or not.

* * *

It was a relief to be heading to school, even though I didn't really like school. I was a social outcast, if the incident with the egg has demonstrated anything. You could call me the class nerd, but that wouldn't really be accurate. I wasn't the one person people always came to for help on a math problem, for instance.

By the time my sister and I had gotten to school, I was already thinking about what was going to go on. I was going to have to explain to somebody why I kept having these pains in my legs, because they wouldn't go away. Twice on the way there I had had to stop due to the agony. I thought about seeing the school nurse, but she'd just refer me to go see a doctor. I didn't want to have to be anywhere near Samuel Cranmore until we actually got to the point where we would be keeping him as a family pet.

"Hey, Zach! How's it going?" I called to my friend.

Zach's forest green eyes looked back at me. If anything, he was even more of an outcast than I was. He still had braces, which made him look far more nerdy than me. In addition, he wore glasses, which only added to the target on his back.

"Great, Lucas. I've been reading _Curse Of The Lucario_ lately. It's a great story, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I'm glad that it's been bound. I won't tell you how it ends, but the author's definitely a millionaire by now".

 _Curse Of A Lucario,_ a novel about a high school student transforming into a Lucario in the middle of science class, was written in 201V. It was published by Disney-Hyperion, and it instantly sold millions of copies. Well, not _instantly,_ but you get the drift. The author, an anonymous young man from the South, was no doubt filthy rich by now, three years after it had been published. He'd even written a sequel, which was making just as much money. Both of us were very big fans of his work.

"How else is it going, Lucas? I saw you on the street earlier yesterday, you looked pretty shocked".

I didn't know what he was talking about at first, until I remembered that there had been the Lucario who had been lying on the road, bleeding. "What about it?"

"What happened, Lucas London? I know that there was clearly something bothering you".

I saw no reason to lie to my best friend. "I saw a Lucario on the road. It had been stabbed and was bleeding badly. I rode with it in the ambulance to the hospital. Is that enough?"

"Yes, it is" Zach said. "It's quite a tale, but I'll believe it. I trust you".

"It's not just that, though. My legs are really hurting, and I don't know what's going on with that".

"Probably nothing. At our age, we get growing pains. I wouldn't be worried".

As I said before, I knew what growing pains felt like, having experienced them before. This was clearly nothing like that. Of course, I didn't have the guts to tell him that. This was just part of me. I was a relatively shy person, not least because of having three names that all started with the same letter.

This was how it went for the rest of the week, in fact. School had started on a Tuesday, and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mainly passed without incident. I continued to experience the phantom pains in my legs, as well as the increase in appetite. I wasn't sure what either of those meant, but it might have had something to do with that necklace...

 _No._ That was conspiracy-theory talk. I couldn't chalk it all up to the necklace. That most likely had had nothing to do to it, it wasn't anything I should be concerned about. I had just been hungry or dehydrated. Maybe it was my teen hormones. In any case, it wasn't that Zoroark necklace. Samuel Cranmore had just happened to have it on him, and it had surprised me or something.

And maybe the red highlights in my hair, which I had noticed on two different occasions besides the initial one...maybe those were just tricks of the light, too. There was no way that there was any supernatural power involved with the necklace...there was just no way. Over the next week, I tried to convince myself that this was true.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

From the moment I woke up in that hospital bed, hearing "Brony Style" by Rucka Rucka Ali playing on the hospital's radio, I knew that my recovery wasn't going to be fun, but it was something I would need to go through.

As I began with my physical therapy, at first with several IVs in at once, then with less and less of them, I was able to put my flashbacks out of my mind. Every night, I was feeling exhausted, but it was less and less so. I was starting to feel better for sure.

"You're going to get discharged tomorrow" the doctor in charge told me as he took the last intravenous line out of my arm. I was pretty glad that things were ending. It wasn't just the physical therapy I was doing in order to get back in shape, however. It was also the fact that I was sick of feeling like a human pincushion. At first, I'd had quite a few, but they had needed to add one more, I was told, because a pine cone had to be used to help block some of the blood from flowing. A fever had apparently set in, making this necessary.

I could now open my mouth more easily, so I said, "Okay. And I am going to be living with the Londons?"

"That is correct" the doctor said. "You are going to be staying in the bedroom of Lucas London, who is a seventeen-year-old high school student. You're going to have to figure out how to get along with him, because I'm afraid that this is a very different type of therapy than what I am trained to do".

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean", he said, "that this Lucas London person is not the most friendly towards the Lucario species. The way things are going, he's going to be a hard person to live with at times. You do understand that, don't you?"

"I am prepared to deal with this".

"Very well, then. In the morning, Denise London, Lucas's mother, is going to pick you up from the hospital and drive you home. Are you ready for this?"

I looked him directly in the eye. "I am".

* * *

The next morning, finally free of tubes but with more bandages than I could count, I walked into the waiting room. I was looking around for who looked like she might be a mother. Using my aura to try to sense these things, I was able to pick up on people's ages, and who was related to whom. Surely it wouldn't be difficult to find Denise London.

Eventually, a woman of average height, with slightly long hair, came over to where I was sitting. "Are you the Lucario that my son came with here? Samuel Cranmore?"

I nodded.

"You're coming with me. I'm Denise London".

She held out her hand, and I took it. Normally, I didn't like to hold the hand of a woman I didn't even know, but I could tell that this woman was going to do what she said she was.

Although, with my aura, I could detect a slight ulterior motive. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but this was just something I was noticing. Hopefully, it didn't mean anything too important. If it did, then that would be a problem. Even though I had been released from the hospital, I was still pretty weak.

"So, what's Lucas like?" I asked Mrs. London.

"Well, he's my son, so you know I'm a little biased. I think that you'll get along greatly with him".

I could tell that there was at least part of the woman that didn't really believe what she was saying. I wasn't going to ask her about that, just because I would be risking so much, but I didn't think that this was going to end well.

"Anything else I need to know about him?" I decided to say.

"Well, he's been eating a lot lately. Like, more than usual. I don't know if he's having another insane growth spurt or what, but he's already tall enough, I should think. In any case, we're about to be at home. You'll get to meet my son soon enough".

I could tell that there was some kind of resentment towards me. Denise London might have looked like a sweet lady on the outside, but I could tell that she wasn't too genuine. I could only hope that she wouldn't be the person I would spend most of my time interacting with.

Finally, we got to a fairly large home. I got out of the car and walked in.

The front hall was gorgeous. There was even a fireplace there. If this was a rich family, that would be pretty great. Maybe my lot in life wasn't so terrible after all.

"It's Saturday, so Lucas is probably upstairs, playing video games" said Mrs. London. "He's in his bedroom".

I took note of that as I made my way upstairs. Even though I tired easily, it didn't really _hurt_ to get into the room at the end of the hallway.

Sitting in a swivel chair was a teenaged boy. He was wearing slippers, black gym pants, a green fleece, and a fierce expression on his face as he fought to get ahead of online players on _Mario Kart 8._ He was very tall and had longish, fluffy brown hair with small bits of red. It wasn't red in terms of ginger, though; it was _red_ red. It wasn't normal.

"What's up?" he asked.

* * *

 **There we go! The chapters are getting longer, this one was more respectable than the last two in terms of length. In addition, I am now at nearly 400 views!**

 **I hope to see some reviews by the time I wake up in the morning. I'd like to know what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, what I could have added, what I could have taken out.**

 **SnowLucario is out of here.**


	4. A Furry Friend

**This is the longest chapter yet, but not by very much. I'm hoping that you enjoy it anyway. I'm proud of how well this story is being received already. I don't know how much longer these quick updates can continue this way, so enjoy it while you can. By the way, this is not a YAOI. This isn't a romantic pairing, it's just a platonic pairing.**

 **Responses to reviewers:**

 **Cosmicsafe74: You'll have to wait and see. Maybe you could analyze the title and see.**

 **Dabsallover (guest): Yeah, I like to break the fourth wall. Those are the stories that inspired me to start, and I have read and re-read them dozens of times. I'll discuss them with you if you get a profile here.**

 **FanficCrossoverMaster15: You'll find out. Thank you so much for complimenting my story!**

 **Foxyjosh: That made me crack up. It might happen in this chapter. Maybe.**

 **Rocker on (guest): That forum is now a thing. It's the "Get Rocker On To Get An Account" Forum. I'm being dead serious. I love that you keep reviewing, and, as for your question, look for my other online accounts.**

 **What Lies Beyond: I give all credit to Talkingbirdguy for writing two amazing stories, Curse Of The Lucario and The Return Of The Cursed Gift. Read them if you have not already.**

 _Answer: I'd be a Lucario, of course! I might be (read: probably am) a bit of a furry, but there would be no sexual things involved. I just like talking animals or Pokémon. Plus, he's just so badass!_

 _Question: What is your favorite scene thus far in the story, up to and including something that takes place in this chapter?_

 **With that, let's get going!**

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

My aura could sense something about this boy that was, in a way, _not human._ I couldn't tell what Pokémon he was partly, but there was a certain aura about him that was _wrong,_ that shouldn't be in any normal human being.

Had he been touched by the necklace? It was entirely possible. That pendant wasn't benevolent, let's put it that way.

"What's up?" Lucas asked me. He was barely taking his eyes off of the TV screen in order to talk to me, which was when I realized that he was engrossed in the middle of a video game.

"What game is this?" I said. "I'm Samuel, so you must be Lucas".

"That is correct" the human teen said. "I'm just gaming, so that's why I don't seem too attentive. Trust me, I would very much like to meet you, I'm in the middle of an online race".

"You know, I've played _Mario Kart 8_ before" I said. It was true. I'd played it before as a human...wait, no. Bad brain. I couldn't be thinking that way. If I dwelled too much on my past life, more flashbacks would come. That was what I had learned.

"Cool" Lucas said. "Do you want to join an online group with me?"

I nodded. I'd never played the game online, and I wasn't quite sure how that worked. Playing video games with people around the world, that was what it sounded like, and that sounded pretty amazing. I didn't really see how that could be done.

Once Lucas had finished the race, a determined look in his eyes, he had come in fourth place out of eleven. "You gain points if you do well, and you lose points if you do poorly" he explained. "It gets harder and harder to gain points the farther up you go, in order to even things out. Right now, I'm at 6418. It starts at 1000".

"That's interesting" I said. "I guess I'll take a Wiimote and join up with you".

Lucas nodded before taking a sip from a glass of water. "This is going to be good" he said.

My host selected a yellow Yoshi, while I selected Link. After that, we went into an online lobby with eight other Miis, including Lucas's, a yellow one, and the guest Mii I was using.

"You pick a course from that list of three, and then the system chooses randomly among what each of us picked" he explained.

Soon enough, everyone had voted, and the race was determined to be taking place on Cloudtop Cruise. We went to the starting line, and we were ready to rock and roll.

At first, things seemed to be going all right. Then, I remembered that I had not played this game since transforming. The only times I had ever played _Mario Kart 8_ were when I was a human. With three fingers, it was a lot more difficult than with five fingers. Even though there were ten people playing, I was consistently in 7th place for the first lap, not too impressive.

Lucas, on the other hand, was having good luck. After falling into 9th place by the time he reached the first set of Item Boxes, he got a Starman and went all the way up to 2nd, where he stayed for a while. As I was struggling to defend 6th place, he was making his way into 1st. And everything seemed to be going right for him all the way up until the final lap.

As he was on the final straightaway, Lucas was hit by a blue shell. This sent him down from 1st place to 5th, which was where he finished the race. Punching the pillow in frustration as he watched me come in 8th, I saw that his anger was not only fueled by his loss. There was a special type of aura in him that I had seen before, but I now knew positively what it was.

I'd seen _Zoroark: Master Of Illusions._ I remembered that scene vividly in which Grings Kodai has the Zoroark trapped inside of a metal box, with strands of electricity binding her. She keeps writhing in pain whenever she tries to move too much, which only adds to her anger.

This was what I saw in Lucas. And I remembered that, as I'd passed out after being stabbed, the attacker had given me something...was it...

No. I couldn't think about it. I didn't want any more flashbacks. I swore to myself that I was done with those, and I didn't intend to go back on that promise to myself.

After four more races, I heard Lucas's mother calling us up to lunch. I could tell that Denise London's son couldn't hear her, as he was still playing. We were having such a good time that I didn't want to disturb him, but I knew it was necessary. I could sense, using my aura, that Lucas was very hungry. More than usual, even for someone his age. One of the telltale signs?

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

Samuel and I had had a very good afternoon together. After a large lunch, which consisted of sandwiches and potato chips, we went back up to my bedroom and started playing chess. For once, my parents might have been trying to reward me for saving the Lucario's life by having me adopt him. It was sure changing my life in a good way.

The only problem I had with the Lucario was that he seemed to act around me as if I was a bomb that was about to go off. Or, like he was picking the type of flowers I would like best next to my tombstone. No matter what, he seemed to be sorry for me, somehow. Really, I was the one who was sorry for _him._ A wild Lucario, forced to be domesticated and live with me. Sad.

We had some good times, playing video games and board games. I even showed him my collection of Pokémon action figures. You could call me a little old to be into those things, and you would be right. Even so, this was something I liked doing, and how dare you insult it.

I was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud noise. It sounded like a balloon popping, except far more intense.

"Sorry" Samuel said.

What had he done? I couldn't see too well in the darkness; I was no Hoothoot. Neither were my ears the best at times. However, I could probably guess that he'd done something wrong, which was...

"I rolled over in the night...rest in peace, air mattress" he said.

I realized what he was talking about. Thanks to his chest spike, Samuel had to be very careful with turning over in the middle of the night. Clearly, he should have been more careful than he was that night, because he had pulverized the air mattress my mother had given him to sleep on. Sometimes, my mother could be so careless that I wanted to cuss her out. If she didn't get any more sleep for the rest of the night, it was on her. She should've realized the anatomy of a Lucario, and how it would clearly have precluded this arrangement from working.

As far as I could tell, however, nobody had woken up. This was a very fortunate situation, considering.

"Sshhh. You can sleep in my bed tonight. We're going to make it work. Just...try not to explode my bed, too".

Samuel chuckled, embarrassed. "Don't worry about that, Lucas London. This bed's aura tells me that it is much more durable than that air mattress".

"You can sense aura in nonliving things?" I asked. "I thought it was only for living things. This bed does not naturally occur, so...".

"Oh, I can sense the aura of this bed as well" the Lucario said. "You see, Lucas, I'm not an ordinary Lucario".

"In what way?" I asked. "Really...".

"No!" Samuel burst out, clearly trying not to wake my family. "I'm not going to tell you. That would be saying too much. Just go back to sleep...if only I had Aromatherapy or something like that...all I've got is Aura Sphere, Laser Focus, Foresight, Quick Attack, Detect, and Metal Claw. I'm only Level 3".

"But you're seventeen years old! At least, according to that Social Security card. How could you possibly be only Level 3?"

"That", the Lucario said, "is the first step towards realizing the answer to that question. Asking it".

"Wait...what?" I asked.

"Nothing" he said. "Go back to sleep".

I tried to do what he said, but it wasn't easy when you had a giant, hairy body right next to you in a bed that was only made for one person. I was six feet, two inches tall, and Samuel was probably only an inch or so less. This was not very comfortable, not in the least.

Eventually, I did manage to doze off, pondering how this living arrangement was _ever_ going to work out. Because, right now, it sure seemed questionable in terms of its livability.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I knew that I had an awkward conversation to deal with in the morning. I got out of bed early, at 6:30 AM. I could see Lucas still sleeping, although my aura sensed that his sleep was not deep; he would wake up within the next few minutes. Deciding to use that time well, I wanted to get this conversation over with before he was up.

I walked over to the room that my aura told me contained Lucas's parents, parents that seemed not to care about their son as much as their daughter. I wasn't quite sure why this was, but what I did know was that I wanted to apologize to Denise London, no matter how much I didn't really care for that woman.

"What is it?" she asked, once I tapped her on the head to wake her up. "It's Sunday...and we're not religious...we're not going to church...we can sleep in".

 _Good. We're not going to church._

I had never believed in God, and so I had hated it when my family had constantly forced me to attend church with them. If the Londons did not attend Sunday services every weekend, that made me like my new predicament a little more, or at least dislike it a little less.

"I had something to tell you" I said via aura, so as to not have her confuse me for her son.

"What is it?" she asked sleepily. I decided to cut to the chase.

"I turned over and popped the air mattress" I said. "I didn't do it on purpose, but I'm still very sorry. Could we get a sleeping bag or something?"

"Sure" Denise said. "I'll order one later on Amazon. Do you want to go downstairs? Do you need our help with fixing breakfast?"

"Nah, I'm cool" I said. "Things are going all right, I should think".

I was glad that we were going to be receiving a sleeping bag soon. Really, I was happy to sleep in the same room as Lucas, because I really did care about the guy. Not in a romantic or sexual way, but it was purely in a friendly way. It had only been a day, and I was already beginning to see him as a brother figure to me. That wasn't to say that he was perfect, far from it, but I did like the guy.

Going back to Lucas's room, I saw that he was just waking up. I was waiting for him to get dressed, but then he came out of the room.

"I often stay in my pajamas until as late as ten" he said. "On weekends, I mean. It's not like every day at school is Pajama Day, that's just once a year!"

"They have Pajama Day at your school?" I asked. "Are you considering using my fur as nightwear?"

"Of course not" he said, looking seriously at me. "Why would you ever think that, Samuel?"

"Just a thought" I said.

Clearly, he didn't think much of that idea. Lucas, based on his aura, also cared about me.

"Let's go downstairs and get some breakfast" I said. "It's going to be a great day".

And it was a great day. After we made bowls of cereal, we decided to play another game of chess, followed by a Mario Party match. Really, we were having a good time getting to know each other. I still hadn't told Lucas about my secret, but I worried that he might find out anyway. He was a smart kid, Lucas London was.

What I also didn't tell him was that his aura told me that he might not be a human for too much longer. There was something ominous there, something that looked like he would transform soon. It was a tough decision, but I was going to, at least for now, leave him in the dark about his eventual fate.

This triggered another flashback, which I tried to stop. However, it was a losing battle.

* * *

 _That necklace..._

 _I'd discovered it on the street when walking home from the bus stop. Then, looking around and seeing that nobody was there, I took it. I figured that it was going to be pretty valuable at some point down the road, and I wanted to take advantage of it. It wasn't like my family was poor, per se, but we could really use the money that would come from selling it._

 _From the day we brought it home, I was having chest pains. These weren't normal chest pains, mind you; this was what you might expect before you had a heart attack, except that I was a healthy teenager. Why would I be having a heart attack now? That just wouldn't make sense, would it?_

 _I complained about it to my parents, so they took me to the ER. After the doctors ran an EKG of my heart, they found nothing abnormal. We went home, and I figured that I was just feeling guilty about taking the necklace. It wouldn't be the first time something similar had happened to me, so I brushed it off. For a while._

 _The next day, the pains intensified. It wasn't getting any better; in fact, it was getting much, much worse. So I went to the doctor again._

 _This time, they did a blood test. As they were scanning the specimen, one of my doctors' eyes widened, and I knew that the news could not be good. I wanted to believe that I would be okay, and I could keep on living my life like normal, but it just wasn't going to happen._

 _I'll never forget when the doctor looked at my mother and said, "It's inevitable. Just make sure he's comfortable when he transforms"._

 _After that, the enormous appetite started. I was eating even more than a growing boy normally would, to the point that my family's grocery bills nearly doubled. I wasn't believing what was going on, until it happened one day while I was in bed._

 _I suddenly felt very hot, and my eyes were watering. My hair felt like it was receding back into my skull, and two black blobs came out in its place. I was shocked. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was turning into a Lucario!_

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

After the weekend was over, it was time for me to head back to school once again. As good of a time I was having spending the days with Samuel, it wasn't going to work out forever. I knew that, so why was I so sad?

I supposed that I would just have to deal with it, and come what may, I would be able to make it through the day. Walking to school, I kept telling myself this. It was going to be okay, no matter what.

I met Zach at the front steps. "How's it going?" I asked him.

"Nice" he said. "Yourself?"

"Yeah. I've got gym first period. How about you?"

I looked at my schedule. "Yep, it's gym for me as well. More specifically, battling. Is that what you have?"

"Sure as hell is!" Zach replied enthusiastically. "Looking forward to it. What Pokémon did you bring?"

"Um..." I began. How could I tell him that I was living with a Lucario in my house? That was going to be an awkward conversation, especially considering everything else that was going on.

"Hey" said a voice behind us.

I turned around to see that it was Samuel. "What are you doing here?" I asked, slightly angrily.

"I wanted to battle another Pokémon" he said. "That's what Arceus made us to do. Your mom said it was okay, too".

"Really?" I asked.

Samuel nodded. "Let's do this".

* * *

The battling gym at Hanover High School was a large room that was perhaps fifty yards by fifty yards. The ground was covered in mattresses so that, if a Pokémon was knocked unconscious, they would not get hurt too badly. Battles were mostly just for fun.

The forty or so of us all lined up, waiting for our turn to do battle. The teacher, Mr. Genger, was somewhat strict, and he always wanted you to play by the rules, which were that each Pokémon could only move once before the other creature would get a turn. After that, the rounds would repeat, and things would continue on until one Pokémon had fainted or was otherwise unable to battle.

This was the purpose of battling, in order to make your Pokémon tougher. There was a separate gym class that wasn't for battling, but Samuel was the one who was going to be tested here.

"Are you sure you're okay to battle?" I whispered in his ear. "So soon after getting stabbed and all".

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be" Samuel said to me. "I just want to get going".

"The first battle", said Mr. Genger, "will be between Lucas London and his Lucario and Margaret Malachi with her Vulpix. One move per turn. Once one Pokémon is unable to battle, the other person wins. Both Pokémon are Level 3. Are both of you ready?"

"Yes!" both of us said in unison. I was looking over at Margaret, a very pretty girl who had black hair and green eyes. She looked very determined today, however. She looked ready to battle.

"Let's get this show on the road!" the gym teacher bellowed, blowing his whistle.

The Vulpix started out with Ember, the most basic move for a Pokémon of this species. However, Samuel was able to dodge it well.

Samuel created an aura sphere and blasted it towards Vulpix, but the fox was able to dodge it at the last moment, although it singed some of its hair. The Vulpix was angry, and she began to charge up another fire breath.

It was clear, at this point, that Samuel was in trouble. He didn't seem to realize it, though, and it dawned on me once again that he was new to battling. After all, he'd told me that he was only Level 3. Clearly, that meant he was inexperienced. Maybe he didn't know that when a Vulpix charged up, its next fire attack was going to be far more devastating. Particularly against a Steel type like Samuel, it was best to be careful.

The Lucario didn't pay this any mind, though, instead launching a Laser Focus. He was fighting fire with fire, in a sense. His next move was also going to be charged up, so the stakes were high. This was an all-out Cold War of sorts.

Margaret and I were watching intently on the sidelines, waiting to see what was going to happen.

Vulpix went out with an Ember, and it was a big one, engulfing Samuel in orange flames. I knew that, as a Steel type, this was going to severely hurt him. However, I had faith that he would be able to come back from this. He had to.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

Ah, the nice mountain air. It was a great way to unwind, and it made sense to be living here. After all, this was where I was most comfortable. And that was important, because...well, I'll tell you later.

I was woken up by my alarm clock at 5:30 in the morning. I always got up early, because I didn't want to waste what time I had left sleeping. That was the way I saw it. As I went over to my dresser, the one with the Weezing on it, I thought about what I was going to do today.

Motivated by my past, I decided to pursue my goal: To find out what was going on with Lucas London.

* * *

 **Okay, guys. First off, who is this Kieran fellow? You're going to find out in the next chapter!**

 **Second of all, I have a new update schedule planned. Every four days, like it is for Wing And A Scare, Attack Of The Anglars, and Rise Of The Enemy (that's my Star Fox trilogy). I am hoping that this makes me write longer chapters than this, like I used to. Should I have a chapter written four days from now, I will post it. This is the way I'm doing it, starting today, because now my updates for the two stories, ROTE and this, will be spaced two days apart.**

 **SnowLucario out.**


	5. It Is Complete

**Put this out earlier than initially planned, but I just couldn't wait any more. Today seemed to go on forever, since allergies have been kicking my ass and I haven't left the house.**

 **First of all, I forgot to do this in the last chapter, but credit for Kieran goes to Insomniac98338. He's also created several characters for Talkingbirdguy's stories, which you** ** _must_** **read. Hint, hint. Also, I have to go in for an EKG on Tuesday (the test where they put electrodes on you to check your heart). Despite this, it's not likely to interfere with my writing too much. What _is_ is the large amount of schoolwork I will need to make up. **

**We've passed the all-important thousand-view mark. To think that we've gotten here after only nine days is truly astonishing. The story has also been added to two C2s, Transformation And Pokémorph Stories and OC Pokémon Fanfiction. For those of you who don't know, if you want to add my story to a community, the answer is always yes. More C2s means more views...I literally just came up with that.**

 **Responses to reviewers:**

 **DabsAllOvar (guest): Yeah, thanks for the review. Glad you appreciated my making sure nobody thought this would be a YAOI. And I'm not a furry in a sexual way.**

 **Fern Lucario (guest): Man, so many guest reviewers! But I'm glad you're enjoying it!**

 **Foxyjosh: I might have done some things differently now, looking back, but I'm doing things differently now. I'm no longer rewarding myself for pushing myself to get a chapter done, since they will only be released every four days at this point. Thanks for adding the story to the community!**

 **Jake Lucario (guest): Thanks for favoriting me! Well, now the next chapter's here.**

 **Rocker on (guest): I did create that forum. I don't know why it hasn't shown up yet, but I did do it. I'm hoping that you heed all of our advice. Just look up "SnowLucario forums" and you'll find it.**

 _Answer: My favorite scene is in this chapter, I think._

 _Question: What question should I ask next?_

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

At first, I'd lived a normal life in Concord, New Hampshire. It hadn't been a perfect life, but I had two loving parents and was an only child. Based on that, you could have been forgiven for thinking everything was fine and dandy with me.

It wasn't.

My parents were overprotective at times, including one occasion when I had felt a slight chest pain. I wasn't thinking that there was going to be too much of a problem; after all, when I ate a lot, I sometimes got a slight case of heartburn. I figured that this was just one of those usual cases, but my parents still insisted on taking me to the hospital to get checked out.

Even though I was twenty years old, and didn't see my parents as the bosses of me anymore, I did love them. And so, I went and did what they asked of me. I even allowed both of my parents to sit next to me in the room while they did an EKG test.

Once that was over, I figured that everything was going to be wonderful. There was going to be absolutely nothing wrong with my heart, and then I'd be able to go home and continue on with my life. Eventually, I would enroll in college (although, since I was a fairly late bloomer, I was going to wait another year or two to do that. And I was perfectly okay with this; I just wanted things to work out.

Imagine my surprise when the doctor came back in and said, "I have some bad news for you guys".

"What is it?" my mother asked.

"Kieran has a form of progressive heart failure. It's only going to get worse the longer it goes on, so his life expectancy is roughly about five more years".

I was shocked at that. I had figured that I was going to live to be 75 or 80 years old, just like the average American male. Instead, I'd be lucky to see 25 or 30. A full fifty years was going to be deducted from my lifespan, all because of something I had no control over.

On the way back home, I cursed Arceus for the lot in life he had given me. I didn't see how I deserved something like this. It wasn't like I'd ever done anything wrong!

Once we got back home, I sat down on my bed and seethed for a good hour, wasting one of my precious hours that I had remaining. It was so precious, every single moment was, when you knew approximately how many more you had left. I refused dinner that night, instead meditating on how things were going.

And, suddenly, I felt a heightened awareness of the world around me. For whatever reason, my parents both gave off an aura of some sort.

Wait... _aura?_

I looked down at my chest. There was no chest spike there, just a heart that would keep on pumping blood through my veins until it just couldn't do it anymore. As it turned out, there had to be some other explanation for what was going on.

Normally, only Lucario could use aura. I wasn't sure exactly why _I_ was able to. I hadn't transformed or anything!

So, now you know at least part of my motive. Part of the reason why I was determined to discover the secret behind what was going on with Lucas London and Samuel Cranmore. However, you still need to know more of my story before you can be fully aware of why I did what I did.

After my diagnosis, I moved out of my home. I didn't want to cause my parents any more pain, and we didn't have any health insurance anyway, so that wasn't really a problem. Besides, I didn't have to take any medications; it was just something I had to take as a given that I had five years left to live, and I couldn't bear to see my parents going through with their lives, or at least trying to, with me at home. It would just be too emotionally painful for them, and for me.

I found a nice, small house in Coös county, a great place to live if you wanted to be alone. It wasn't too expensive, and my parents, after I had been able to persuade them that it was worth it, were willing to lend me some money in order to make the purchase. It wasn't the greatest house, but I learned to live with the sound of the leaks. It told me that this new life, even if it was to be a short one, would end up being worth it.

I never did tell my parents that I had the ability to see aura. It had never come up over the few occasions a year that I did call them on the phone, just so they could have confirmation that I was still alive. And, with my heart beating at a normal speed, you wouldn't have thought that there would be a problem with me; indeed, neither would I had the doctors not told me what was going on.

Once I was settled in my new home, I decided to do as many things as possible, in order to spread as much fear as possible. That was my new purpose in my life, just to spite Arceus for what had been done to me that I had no control over.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I had lost. Badly.

The Vulpix's Ember, when charged up, would completely decimate a Steel type like myself. I hadn't been quick enough in dodging, and so I had gotten hit with the full blast of the flames. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, to say the least.

I could feel the knife wound getting reopened by the heat. I knew that this was going to be painful, and that it could cause serious problems for a Pokémon of my type. Fighting to stay conscious, I fell to my knees.

However, it was a losing battle. I blacked out after less than a minute.

I woke up lying on something soft and comfortable. Looking around, I could see that the room around me was white and relatively sterile. Much cleaner than the gym. And I could sense a kindly aura coming from the woman in the corner...was this...?

It seemed that I was in the infirmary. I could tell, because there were all sorts of bandages around the place, as well as other medical supplies. The nurse at the desk, a Chansey wearing the typical nurse's hat, noticing that I was awake, came over to greet me.

"I see you're up. How are you feeling?"

"Like I just got burned" I said, via aura since I was still in some serious pain.

"That's only to be expecting, considering that you _were_ burned" the nurse said. "And, as a Steel type, I recommend that you not take part in any battles for at least three more days. After that, you'll be as good as new, considering that you are also a Fighting type. But, right now, I'm afraid that you must take this medicine".

Nurse Pinky (yes, according to her tag, that was her actual name), held out a spoonful of an orange liquid. It smelled absolutely vile, and I was sure that it didn't taste too different. I was really dreading taking it, but it did seem like I was going to have to.

"Open wide" Nurse Pinky said in her coyingly sweet voice. Man, that voice was annoying as hell.

She poured the liquid into my mouth, and I nearly spat it out. It was so disgusting! It tasted like glue, and was probably made out of the stuff now that I think about it. Even after it had passed my mouth, I was still fighting not to vomit it up. I was sure that she was going to give me a shot if I didn't manage to keep it down, and I was sick of shots. Even as a human, I hadn't liked needles, not that anyone really does. But now, so soon after being released from hospital, I liked them far less still.

"You really should head home and get some sleep" Nurse Pinky advised me. "You weren't even supposed to come here today, and rest assured that Lucas London is going to get a full reprimand for his actions. Really, bringing in a recovering Lucario without permission of the doctors...".

I just sat up and got out of there after that. Knowing that it wasn't too far back home, I decided to just walk it. It wasn't like I had any other choice; after all, that was the way I had come, so why would I do anything different now?

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The rest of the day was all right. Even though I knew Samuel was okay, I couldn't stop being concerned about him. We had developed such a close friendship over the last few days that I was starting to miss him once he had left the gym to go to the nurse's office.

It wasn't just that he was a Steel type against a Fire type; he was only just recovering from being stabbed, so it would not be surprising if he had injured himself further and prevented himself from recovering as a result. I could have made him go home right after seeing him in the gym, but _no._ I had to agree to battle.

I got a few weird looks for the Lucario that had come to school with me, but nothing too bad. Really, I was just worried about getting through the day without having someone else throw an egg at me. As for what was going to be waiting for me at home, I could only guess. It might not be good, but I was going to have to be able to deal with whatever it turned out to be.

Once I had arrived back at home, I heard what sounded like a fairly heated argument taking place. I didn't know what it was about at first, but then I recognized the voices of Samuel and my mother. They seemed to be talking about...something involving me.

"Really, you shouldn't have joined Lucas at school!" my mother was saying. "For heaven's sake, Samuel, you're still recovering! You shouldn't have done battle against a Fire type!"

"I wanted to help my new master" the Lucario said. "Is that so wrong?"

"Yes, it is", my mother replied, "if you are doing that at the expense of your own well-being, Samuel Cranmore. You have to look after yourself, you know. We can't be the only ones doing that for you!"

After that, she seemed to notice me walking into the room. "Good afternoon, Lucas. We were just talking about the consequences of your actions".

"Wait, consequences?" I asked. Normally, that meant punishment. My mother was never abusive towards me, but she could dole out some strict punishments when she wanted to. Evidently, this was one of those times. Not surprising, considering that she was pretty angry with me for allowing Samuel to go to school with me.

It wasn't like it was my fault, either. I hadn't been the one who had snuck out of the house in order to participate in a battle, when I was still recovering from a stab wound. Really, that was a foolish thing to do.

"Yes, Lucas. I'm thinking that you and the Lucario here are going to be going to bed without supper. I believe that this is a just consequence for your actions".

I sighed. This wouldn't be the first time that I'd been sent to bed without dinner. I'd always been able to cope with this, even if I did feel pretty hungry the next morning.

Now, however, things might be different with my newfound massive appetite. We still didn't know exactly why I had such an appetite, but it was going to make it more difficult to endure this evening. I guessed that we would have to wait and see what happened.

* * *

Samuel and myself were sent up to my room, where we sat for a time, neither of us knowing what to say.

Eventually, the Lucario said, "I'm sorry I got you into so much trouble".

"Really, it's no problem" I said. "You couldn't have known. What _is_ a problem is the physical trouble you might have gotten yourself into. Did that fire affect you too much?"

Samuel blushed visibly. "I'd rather not talk about it. Really, it hurts like a bitch".

My stomach was already growling. It was only about four in the afternoon. My family often didn't eat dinner until seven. That was three more hours, and even then we would not be able to eat anything.

"Want to play some chess?" Samuel asked.

I looked at him ruefully. "I really would, but I've got homework. Seriously, though, I would if I could, but I promise you I can't".

The Lucario smiled sadly. "Nah, it's cool. You do what you have to do, you know? That's how the world runs".

I supposed it was, as I got started on my math. Being an Aura Pokémon, Samuel could sense when I was having trouble on a problem, and so he was able to help me on a few things. I was going to ask where he had learned all of this math from, but I got the feeling that aura might have helped with this as well.

Even with this bonding experience, we were pretty miserable that night. There's just no way around saying it. Particularly when my family ordered pizza, and we could smell it from up here. Pizza was one of my favorite foods, so that was tough to deal with.

However, even with all of this, the most important event in my life, it could be argued, did not occur until the next day.

* * *

I woke up, feeling even hungrier than usual, not surprising since I'd missed dinner. It wasn't just hunger that I had to contend with, however.

Even as I ate breakfast, my stomach was still growling. My mother had made us pancakes, which is one of my favorite breakfast foods. They're very filling, too, so you would expect this to have at least somewhat made up for my punishment. But _no._

Once it was time to head to school, I was feeling light-headed. I had my backpack on, but it felt like it weighed nothing. For whatever reason, I felt...untethered to the human world.

 _Wait...WHAT? What did that even mean? How could I be untethered to the human world if I was still alive?_

I really wasn't sure what was going on. I just continued on my walk, but I soon felt another sensation. It wasn't a pleasant one.

My legs began to hurt much more than they had before. It was some of the most excruciating pain I've been in, and this is speaking as someone who has survived a broken arm, a broken leg, and a burst appendix. This was definitely up there, and yet the pain was somehow not _so_ bad that it was impossible for me to walk.

By the time I managed to reach the school, a couple of minutes late for my first class, I was feeling even more light-headed than I had been before breakfast. It wasn't from lack of food, it was from the pain. I had to fight not to pass out with every step, and I could tell that some eyes were looking my way. It wasn't like I could help it, though. With no idea what had caused this, I could only try to act as normally as possible.

After that, there was such a pain in my chest area that I fell to my knees, my painful legs unable to support me anymore. I knelt on the ground, fighting not to throw up. It felt like my chest was trying to expand in two directions, but was still constrained in one. That was what the pain was like.

As luck would have it, I found myself right next to the nurse's office. Was that good luck or bad luck? I guessed I was about to find out.

Nurse Pinky, who was the Pokémon nurse, was not the one in this office. The nurse here was Nurse Valentina, and she was a sweet enough woman, I supposed. The fact remained, however, that I wasn't keen to see the nurse at this point in the day.

"What's going on, Lucas?" she asked me.

I could barely get out, "Chest...hurts".

"In what way?" the nurse said.

"It feels like it's trying to branch out in two different directions. Is that a sign of a heart attack or something?" I'm kind of a hypochondriac, so you can see why I would be worried about this.

"It could be. I'm not saying what it might or might not be".

I tried to stand up, but couldn't. The pain was far too great; it was like there was an elephant sitting on me, squeezing my chest in two different directions.

"That's it" the nurse said. "I'm calling 911. Let me just get my phone".

As I heard her describe my symptoms to the emergency responders, I knelt there on the floor with pain rivaling a heart attack, for sure. It seemed that the nurse was saying that I might be having one of those.

 _Oh, Arceus! I'm too young to die! I still have so much left to live for!_

I felt a weird tingling in my toes. It wasn't the kind you get when your foot falls asleep; no, this was something entirely different. It felt as if my toes were turning into spikes, and it was very painful. I now had the pain in my chest _as well as_ the pain in my feet.

I could tell that something had changed. I could no longer really feel my toes, and I was worried that I was going to pitch forward. That would be pretty embarrassing, but luckily there were not very many people in the hallways, since class had started six minutes ago (class started at 7:30, it was 7:36 now).

And then I felt more light-headed than ever before. It was just like last week, what things had been like right before I'd passed out. That necklace had really caused a lot of trouble; was _this_ caused by the necklace? I had no way of knowing, but my vision was darkening, even as I could feel the same sensation that had happened to my toes happen to my fingers. It seemed that they were becoming spiky as well.

I heard the nurse scream, "No, Lucas! Stay with me!".

Then, nothing at all.

* * *

I woke up, and immediately I noticed where I was.

I seemed to be in an ambulance of some sort, not surprising considering that the nurse had called 911. I was lying on a stretcher, and there were paramedics all around me. One of them was holding a series of electrodes.

"Okay, he's awake!" one of them yelled. "Let's do an EKG! We _need_ to know what's going on!"

As they were trying to put the heart monitor on me, my entire body felt itchy. Instinctively, I started scratching it, but scratching myself revealed that my fingernails were a lot...sharper than normal. Had they changed fundamentally?

"Don't scratch it. We'll have to shave it off for the exam!" another paramedic, this one a woman, yelled. "We _must_ know if there are any problems with his heart!"

Wait... _shave it off?_

I looked around at my body.

My shirt had been cut from me, so I was able to see my bare chest. I'm not that hairy, but what few chest hairs I did have had been replaced by...

Black fur.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

After school, I learned that my brother had been taken to the hospital at the beginning of the day. They hadn't said why, just that it was important that we knew what it was. They didn't want to tell us over the phone for whatever reason.

My mother drove me to the hospital, as our father was still at work. The whole way, I was wondering what was going on with my brother. He had to have gotten pretty sick in order to be hospitalized, right? That wouldn't just happen at random, and yet it seemingly had.

These were the questions that plagued me as we arrived at the waiting room, a place that I was becoming somewhat familiar with. We signed in and waited for my brother to come out.

"Here's Lucas London" the nurse said. And then a being walked into the room.

But instead of my brother, there stood a Zoroark, with black fur and red hair that went all the way down his back in a ponytail. His blue eyes looked wild, like a lion that had just discovered some easy prey and was about to go in for the kill.

"Lucas?" I asked.

"Yes, it is me. Lucas Leonard London" said the Zoroark, who still had human vocal cords. It was a good thing, too, because neither of us knew the Pokémon language, which would have made things highly inconvenient in terms of communication.

"Well", said my mother, "we still need to pay some bills. I'll do that, and then we'll go home".

Lucas the Zoroark and I stood there for another few minutes while my mother got the tab settled for the hospital visit her son had been subjected to. Then, we went back to the car and drove home. Lucas got the passenger seat, since his hair took up so much space. The whole time, he looked pretty embarrassed at what had just happened to him, although he hadn't really done anything that we could see. It just looked like he'd just so happened to turn into a Zoroark, right in the middle of nowhere. None of us knew why.

Once we got home, it was quite an awkward dinner. Samuel sat right next to Lucas on one side of the table, while the three humans in the room sat on the other side. We all figured that it would only be a matter of time until this story ended up on the news. Surely the reporters were going to go absolutely insane over this, since it wasn't something that happened every day.

All I could think about was what it was going to be like for me now: I'd be the girl at school with the freak brother, the brother who had turned into a Zoroark with no explanation whatsoever.

* * *

 **All right! Longest chapter yet! I keep saying that.**

 **In any case, if you'd like to PM me any OCs or Pokémon suggestions, I will field that request. Even if something goes wrong and I have to be admitted to the hospital (almost positive it won't happen), I will get it out.**

 **I'll post the next chapter Wednesday afternoon. I always find that the evening, and overnight, is prime time on this site. I like waking up and checking my inbox. And, if you're enjoying it enough that you want to keep reading it, and you have an account, just follow the story and you will get an e-mail notification whenever I post a new chapter.**

 **With that, SnowLucario out.**


	6. Samuel's Suggestion

**I was fully intended to spend an hour writing on Monday night no matter what. And then I discovered a "what" to my "no matter". Jirulius, one of my favorite authors, has a Discord now, for his story. I went on there, and unfortunately they couldn't hear me. I'll need to have my dad help with that.**

 **This chapter does go into some dark themes, so reader discretion is advised.**

 **Also, I have continued beta reading. I won't do anything too long, but if you have something you want to send me, by all means do it.**

 _Answer: Thank you, HoppsHungerfan, for ideas for questions. Will I do anything so personal as that, though?_

 _Question: I guess...are you in school right now? If so, what is your favorite subject? And are you very athletic in gym class?_

 **Responses to reviewers:**

 **Cosmicsafe74: He already did turn into a Pokémon.**

 **DabsAllOvar (guest): Let's try to get this train into the station! Really, I found that analogy really cool. Hope you continue to stick around, because I love all the reviews I can get.**

 **HoppsHungerfan: I'm interested that you enjoy the domestic scenes. To a certain degree, I do as well, but I know that a large majority probably prefers action.**

 **Insomniac98338: Sorry if that was a bad idea for Kieran.**

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I was shocked to find that Lucas had turned into a Zoroark. Maybe _shocked_ was the wrong word; after all, I was expecting it, since I knew what the necklace could do. Even so, you could say I was shocked, but not surprised, at what the necklace had done.

You would have figured that Lucas would have turned into a Lucario rather than a Zoroark, but apparently the necklace had a mind of its own. If so, that made it that much more dangerous.

After eating dinner next to the newly-transformed Zoroark, in what felt like the seats of shame (since we were the two Pokémon in the group), Lucas and I headed up to his room. Looking at the floor, I was very grateful that the sleeping bag had finally arrived from Amazon, because if it had not we would have a Lucario and a Zoroark sleeping in the same bed, a bed only designed for one human being.

"That's nice" I said, noting that we finally had the sleeping bag. Lucas also smiled, which revealed his new, pointy teeth. Somehow, he had still been able to eat steak for dinner, even though his teeth looked like they might have a hard time chewing it.

"Yeah" he replied. "I think that I should do some homework- or would they have sent it to the hospital? I don't know".

"What did they ask you to do?" I asked him.

Lucas gritted his teeth. "I have a three-page essay, double spaced, on the DNA of a Zoroark. It's due on Friday, assuming that I can even come to school after this".

"You've got to" I said. "You don't want to attract too much attention by skipping school. During my first few days as a Lucario, I made the same mistake".

"Wait... _first few days_?" he asked me. "I thought you were always a Lucario".

"I wasn't" I replied. "In fact, I only became one about a month ago. I was a human before, same as you".

Lucas looked as though he was about to pass out. "But...how...?"

"I think it might have something to do with this necklace, Lucas. I discovered it on the road, and I had soon turned into a Lucario. If this was what initiated your transformation into a Zoroark...".

The Zoroark boy looked like he was still having a hard time believing me. After all, it _was_ a pretty extraordinary claim, and I had nothing to back it up. It was like trying to claim that God did or didn't exist; you couldn't prove it either way, so if you claimed absolute knowledge, you would be left with a burden of proof you couldn't possibly meet.

"I guess it's _possible"_ Lucas said. "Still, though...it sucks that I won't be able to wear pajamas tonight".

"Why did you still wear PJs?" I asked him. "Surely you'd have stopped by...how old are you, exactly?"

"Seventeen" he replied. "And, to answer your question, I've always liked to. I find it more modest, you know? What if someone comes in the middle of the night?"

"Fair enough" I said. "Although, by ten, I was just wearing underwear to sleep. Maybe you should, too. You'd be a lot less hot at night".

"Well, now I'm sleeping in the nude, whether I like it or not. Pretty much nothing's going to fit me anymore" Lucas said with a sigh. "So...want to play some chess?"

We ended up pulling out Lucas's game of _Super Mario Chess,_ which has coins and shells for pawns, Yoshis and Birdos for knights, Peach, Daisy, and Magikoopas for bishops, Toads and Goombas for rooks, Luigi and Bowser Jr. for queens, and Mario and Bowser for kings. Since my host was more familiar with this version of the game than me, he had a natural advantage. Even so, I was having a very good time with him.

Our friendship had certainly evolved, now that we both had something in common besides living under the same roof. Both of us had been normal human teenagers, only to come across a necklace with a Zoroark head on it and turn into a Pokémon. That wasn't something that happened to most people, and so we shared that bond almost instantly.

Later, when I got into my sleeping bag, I was desperately hoping that my telling Lucas about my past would not result in another flashback. Flashbacks...how much I hated them, and yet they had also been increasing in frequency. What a frustration.

Sure enough, as soon as I fell asleep, I began having a vision of my past.

 _I walk along the avenue...this is after I'm a Lucario. Once I'm on a street near where the London family lives, I see a knife on the ground._

 _Is this worth it? Yeah, my life has really been sucking lately, but surely ending my life would cause there to be a lot of stories on the news...the boy turned into a Lucario, set to end his life. Yeah, that's what it would be of._

 _It wasn't as though I had nothing to live for. Quite the opposite...I had nothing to_ die _for. And yet, this made all the difference. Much like Veronika in_ Veronika Decides To Die _by Paulo Coelho, my life seemed to be without purpose. I was just running away, trying to live on what I could find out of trash cans. It was tough, being a human turned into a Lucario and living alone._

 _No, I wasn't really living. I was just going through the motions, trying to stay one step ahead of the cameras. Looking back on it, I'm surprised that Lucas London hadn't heard about me before. Probably he didn't follow the news too closely, or else he would have been far more aware of what was going on._

 _I pick up the knife. A nice, three-inch blade, not serrated. Perfect for chopping vegetables...but would it be as good at chopping through flesh?_

 _Let's find out._

* * *

I bolted awake, right after reliving what had been my suicide attempt. That was how I had been stabbed. I'd stabbed myself, wanting to make my life over. It was just too complicated, too painful to go on living.

And yet I still had. Trying not to cry, I looked around, noticing that it was morning. Wednesday morning.

I knew that Lucas was probably still going to be attending school today, even if he was a Pokémon now. Even if it made things more difficult, he did seem like a diligent student. As much as I felt like I wanted to tell him about my flashback, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to. Not with him going to school.

Evidently, Lucas had already gotten up. I supposed that I had slept pretty late, which wasn't like me. Normally, I was up with the roosters, but not today.

I decided to head straight downstairs. I wanted to know exactly what was going on with Lucas and his family. In a flashback, I seemed to remember something that had run through my mind...what was it...?

 _Yes._

I remembered that there was a place Lucas could go, a place where the young man might find answers. It was a preposterous suggestion, to be sure, but I really thought that it would be appreciated. Yes, this was what I figured would be a good idea.

Once I got downstairs, the Londons were all eating their scrambled eggs and toast. Three of them were all staring at the fourth, and I'm sure you can guess who the fourth person was.

"Excuse me" I said.

"Oh, hello, Samuel, you're up" Mr. London said. "Thanks for joining us for breakfast".

I tried to read on Mr. London's aura. He seemed to care about me more than he did Lucas...why did they favor their daughter over their son so much? This made no sense. And they favored Michelle over me, that much I could tell.

The truth was, however, none of this mattered. I knew that I was just thinking about this in order to steel myself, no pun intended, for what I was about to say.

"I have an idea" I said daringly.

"What is that?" Mrs. London asked me.

"Yeah" Lucas said. "I'm all for ideas".

I chose to jump right in, not caring about the possible consequences at the moment. "I think that there is a place you guys should take Lucas" I said.

"Where is that?" Mr. London asked, taking a bite out of his toast.

"There is a Zoroark colony in Quebec" I replied. I knew it was true as I was saying this. It was as if the necklace had imparted this knowledge into my brain, for me to take out and peruse at my leisure, much like a book. "It's about a six-hour drive north of here. Lucas could go there for a weekend, learn how to use his illusions. I have a feeling that he'll need them".

"Probably true" Lucas the Zoroark said. "Really, you guys should let me go. Can anyone here drive me up to Canada?"

"I can" I replied. It was true; I had gotten my license before I had transformed, and I knew the precise location, the exact coordinates. I could make this work.

"Samuel, are you _sure_ you're up to it?" Lucas's father asked me. "It's a long drive for someone who's just recovering from a stab wound".

I knew that I could do it. We were going to go up to Canada, and there Lucas would learn how to use his illusions properly. I figured that this was a good idea. And Lucas clearly did as well, because, as he was leaving the house to go to school, I saw him wink happily at me.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

It was going to be tough adjusting to life as a Zoroark.

For one, my wardrobe. Normally, my outfit was a T-shirt, long gym pants, boxers, and socks that might or might not match. However, once you had turned into a Zoroark, all sense of normalcy was out the window. Lucario like Samuel could wear clothes if they really wanted to, but I couldn't, simply because they wouldn't fit on me.

Everything private, however, was covered by the mass of black fur I was covered in, so I was unlikely to be arrested for indecent exposure. In addition, I could run pretty fast in this form. And, if I did go up to Quebec this weekend and learn how to wield the powers of illusion, I might even be able to turn into my old form. Then, I'd be able to wear clothes.

My backpack was also slightly difficult to carry. Had I lived in a more densely populated area, I would have been weaving in and out of traffic like crazy, and my backpack would bonk a lot of people, on account of the fact that I had to tie it to the back of my giant red ponytail.

So I was walking down the sidewalk, with an orange backpack at the end of the ponytail. If I saw Zach, would that be enough for him to recognize me? Or would he have a hard time making the connection that I was the Zoroark?

Zach was in the schoolyard, right next to the American flag. He was helping to raise it, which was one thing that students took it in turns to do.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

He turned around, looking shocked. "Is that you? Lucas?"

I held out one of my claws and pointed it upward like a thumbs-up sign. "That's me. I don't know why I turned into a Zoroark, but how much work did I miss out on?"

Zach smiled. "Not that much. All of us were worried when we heard that you were going to the hospital".

"It was pretty funny when they tried to do an EKG, actually" I said. "Really, I would have laughed if not for what was going on with my body. I didn't know what it was, and I still don't".

I could tell that there were people laughing at me, while some others were giving me a wide berth. I wasn't too surprised about this, because it was pretty rare for humans to turn into Pokémon. No doubt some of these pictures were already on Facebook accounts, of a Zoroark carrying a school backpack on its ponytail. That was quite laughable.

As it turned out, there were going to be more problems for me besides how I was perceived by the other students.

For one, a lot of us, as humans, tend to take for granted that we live in a world built for humans, not Pokémon. The world is Pokémon-friendly, but not the usual high schools that you have, that humans go to.

The first class, Writing, was pretty hard. The QWERTY keyboard is designed for someone with five fingers on each hand, and I can type upwards of 60 words per minute. That is, when I'm not limited to three claws per hand.

When you're a Zoroark, it's a lot harder to write essays, or whatever else you might be working on. It's just not very easy to do. And, while I tried to hunch myself over my MacBook Air as low as possible, in order to hide my poor work from everyone else, I was sure that there were plenty of people staring and laughing at my struggles. Really, why wouldn't they be?

In Science class, my saving grace was the fact that we weren't doing any labs. All I had to do was awkwardly thumb through the textbook, while awkwardly jotting down notes for the test we were going to have on Friday, which was a half day due to parent-teacher conferences. It was pretty much the same with Math and History, both of which were very much verbal classes, except when they involved jotting down notes and answers to questions.

When it was time for lunch, I sat apart from the others. It wasn't like it wasn't cool to be a Zoroark, it was just that nobody else was likely to want to sit with me. If you were sitting next to the freak who had managed to turn into a Zoroark in broad daylight, in front of a bunch of paramedics, that was probably social suicide. I wouldn't be the one to ask about this, but it's probably safe to assume that this is the case.

It was a relief when the next period began, even if fifth period was gym class, something I wasn't looking forward to. Since I was wearing what amounted to a gigantic, actual _fursuit,_ I hoped I wouldn't get overheated. It was getting to be a pretty hot day out, in the seventies or eighties, and my fur was going to make me burn alive. Hopefully, this wasn't going to be too hard.

When Mr. Falco announced what we were going to do, which was playing basketball, I became fairly excited, as well as anxious. How was I going to fare in this new form?

In my human form, I was tall, but I wasn't particularly muscular. I was also not very fast, and I wasn't great at scoring. It was time to see, however, what it would be like as a Zoroark.

I was instructed to put on a red pinnie, along with everyone else on the red team. Of course, I couldn't wear it like a shirt, so I just hung it from my ponytail so that people could see which team I was a member of. _Let's see how this goes,_ I thought. _Let's see how this goes._

I was pretty much terrible at basketball as a Zoroark. I was normally decent at dribbling the ball, but my three claws per hand didn't cut it. Really, it was embarrassing, but there was nothing I could really do about it. As much as people might have screamed, "Lucas, get in shape!", the fact was that this wouldn't cut it, either. The fact of the matter was, I had had no control over my transformation.

And it pissed me off.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

Once school was over, I was very glad to just be able to go to Olivia's house the way I usually did. There were so many crazy things going on lately that it felt great to be doing something ordinary, to have a sense of normalcy in my life.

Over the course of the school day, I had gotten quite a few stares thrown my way. This wasn't really a surprise, considering the fact that my brother's transformation had been all over the news. In the paper, it had been on the very headline. That's one thing that should tell you when something is big news.

I sat down next to my best friend, and we continued watching _Friendship Is Magic._ Sometimes, it was easy for me to think that friendship _could_ be magic. Olivia didn't seem to be judging me for having a shape-shifting brother...that _had_ to count for something, right?

In any case, we'd set up the beanbag chairs just the way we liked it, and we were sipping on root beer and eating popcorn as we saw Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack sing a parody of "We Built This City". It was pretty much the same as the song by Jefferson Starship, except that instead of "Marconi", every use of the inventor of the radio was sung as "My pony".

 _My pony plays the mamba, let's look at the rodeo!_ Something like that.

Eventually, Olivia had to use the bathroom. Probably because she was drinking so much root beer. I swear, that girl must have drunk a full two-liter bottle of it. It wouldn't have surprised me, but, being the good friend I was, I paused the show until she came back. I wasn't the die-hard fan that she was, but I appreciated it just the same. There was just something about watching colorful equestrians running around, just hanging out. Really, I would have tried to introduce Lucas to it, but I knew he wouldn't have appreciated that.

Once Olivia came back, she asked me a question. "What did happen to your brother?"

I couldn't really answer that question. The truth was, I didn't know. I supposed that he had just turned into a Zoroark out of the blue, because that was what all of the evidence pointed towards. And I really didn't want to lose any friends over this.

"I guess he just...transformed. It happened about a week after the first day of school. He saw a Lucario that had gotten stabbed on the road, and he went with it to the hospital. Once he was there, it seems that he passed out for whatever reason".

"Your brother _fainted_?" she asked me.

"Yes. Fainted. Passed out. Swooned. You get the point. He's not a wuss, though. It was just because of...something".

Even though I liked Olivia a lot, that didn't mean I was willing to trust her with something like this. It could be argued that this would make me not really her friend, but I digress.

"I feel bad for you" she said. "After all, you have to work with all of that social stigma, with a brother who turned into a Zoroark. How do you deal with that?"

I smiled sadly. "Sometimes, that's just what you have to do".

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The week felt interminable. For the most part, it was fairly easy to participate in my classes. Once I had gotten used to them, that was all that was necessary. I was still not great at basketball, or anything else in gym class, though. I'd need to work on that.

It was also kind of awkward walking around without any clothes on. Of course, all of my important partswere covered, but it was still weird. If you've ever had a dream where you were at school only in your underwear, imagine it being like that for me, only in real life. And I wasn't even _wearing_ any boxers. It was just me. Of course, it wasn't my nudity that was the thing most people paid attention to.

For all of the bad things, however, I also had a positive reason to be looking forward to the weekend. Samuel and I were going to be driving up to the Zoroark sanctuary in Quebec, a distance that was not inconsiderable, and I was glad that school got out early.

After running home as fast as my furry legs could carry me, I found Samuel in the kitchen, eating from a bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips.

"You like those, don't you?" I asked him.

He nodded. "We should probably leave right after lunch" he said. "We've got a long way to drive. We'll need to make sure that we have our passports".

"It won't be a problem" I said. "Mom put them in my backpack. She really can be caring, when she wants to be".

Samuel didn't have a reply to that. Eventually, he put the potato chips away. "I'm going to have to stop eating these. I'm just glad they're not _chocolate_ ".

I'd seen _Lucario And The Mystery Of Mew,_ and I knew what Samuel was talking about. According to that movie, Lucario were absolute chocolate addicts. Personally, I'd never really been a fan of chocolate, myself, but I could see why other people liked the rich flavor.

After my parents ate lunch with us, my mother made sure that we knew all of the typical rules of the road, so that we'd be as safe as possible. She also gave us each fifty dollars, just in case we needed it.

"Be safe, guys" my mother said. "I don't have too good of a feeling about this, so be careful as hell. You got that?"

Both of us nodded.

"Have a nice time north of the border".

* * *

 **I felt like making this a little longer at first, but I realized that this was a good line to end the chapter with. I'm putting this out before I go in for the EKG. I'll tell you guys the results at the top of the next chapter!**

 **Sincerely,**

 **SnowLucario.**


	7. Of Illusions And Mysterious Men

**My mother hasn't told me yet about the EKG results, so I take that as good news. I'm fine, guys. I can start the new medication for my new OCD, that will hopefully allow me to get my life back. Let's check the story stats:**

 _Reviews: 39. Views: 2,119. C2s: 3. Favs: 10. Alerts: 23._

 _Hm. I'd say I'm doing all right. What do you guys think?_

 **Here we have what is easily the longest chapter yet. It's a little over six thousand words. The fact of the matter is that I haven't been writing chapter lengths to my best ability, and I think I really should try to hold to the four-day schedule, which is hypocritical of me because I'm posting this, or at least intend to, on Thursday night. With that in mind, let's get to the question.**

 _Answer: I'm not the most athletic, and I'd say my favorite subject is English. I don't particularly like math this year. I'm a sophomore in high school._

 _Question: What's your favorite Pokémon story on this site?_

 **I have created my own Discord, which is called SnowLucario's Fanfiction Club. If you have a mic and a Discord account, just PM me and I'll send you an invite link. Make sure your earphones are earbuds with microphones, because I ran into this problem in the That Universe Discord chat.**

 **Also, the President Of The United States is mentioned here. It's not Donald Trump. Despite my left-wing political views, this chapter is not intended to take a stab at Trump. Just know that.**

 **With that out of the way, let's get into the chapter!**

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

An hour later, we were driving straight through the White Mountains, appreciating the scenery. As Lucas did not have his license yet, and I did, I sat behind the wheel as my Zoroark friend sat in the passenger seat. For the most part, neither of us said much for the first two hours of the trip.

It was only when we were getting fairly close to crossing into Quebec, into Canada, that Lucas spoke up. By this point it was mid-afternoon, and my bladder was starting to act up. I should not have drunk so much water prior to leaving, but that was just what I had done. Besides, I hadn't wanted to be too dehydrated for the road. I had to remind myself that the important cargo was sitting right next to me. Lucas Leonard London.

"So...did news cover your transformation?" he eventually asked, reclining back in his seat. He put his hands behind his head like he was about to do some sit-ups, and was completely pumped up for it.

"Not really" I replied. "I suppose that the government must have figured that there was nothing they couldn't cover up. Really, President Jenkins covers up a lot".

I thought about what I was saying. Estonia Jenkins, the President Of The United States, was known to be hiding a lot of things. Who would put it past her to cover up something as potentially threatening to national security as teenagers changing into Pokémon? It was completely possible.

And, as I thought about it more, I had to actively focus. I knew that I didn't want to crash the car. Not when I had such an important mission, to get Lucas to the Zoroark habitat in Quebec. There, he'd be able to learn more about his powers of illusion, and how to better manipulate them. No doubt this would be an important skill for him to have in this world.

"Maybe I can wear clothes again, once we get to the point that I can use illusions to look like a human" Lucas said.

"Speaking of clothes" I said, trying to address the problem at hand, "I'm about to piss myself. Let's stop at the next rest stop, so we can see where we're going. I _feel_ that we're going the right way, but my aura is just not at that level yet".

Lucas nodded. "That sounds good. Do you enjoy being a Lucario, by the way?"

I weighed the question before deciding to throw it right back at him. "Do you enjoy being a Zoroark?"

His face drooped. "I guess not, when you put it that way. I'm not liking not being able to wear any clothes. It's just weird, you know?"

"I know what you mean. Are you going to look out for the rest stop?" I asked.

"I will" Lucas replied. I saw him start looking on the other side of the highway for rest stops. Any place that allowed me to empty my bladder, and maybe confirm where the hell we were going, would be more than welcome.

You might be asking: _Samuel, couldn't your aura help you find the habitat, no matter how far away it was?_

That would be a comforting idea, but it's wrong. The fact of the matter is, there must have been some sort of protective powers around it, so that it could not be sensed from this far away. I could see why they would do that, even if it was wildly inconvenient for us.

Finally, we found a place to stop. After we relieved ourselves and bought some water, Lucas checked the map that was on the side of the rest stop.

"It says to keep going on this highway until we cross into Canada" he said. "Then, we'll hit passport control. Once we're through there, it's probably another couple of hours to the village. This really is a long drive".

"I hear you, Luke" I said to him.

Lucas stiffened up. " _Please_ don't call me Luke. Like, ever. I just prefer the name Lucas".

My aura could sense that he wasn't kidding. He probably thought that his legal name sounded more professional than the nickname people often gave it, which is understandable. I mean, I don't go by Sam, for instance.

"We're going the right way, though" I said. "Another four hours and we'll be there. Another half hour and we'll be at border patrol. Make sure to have your passport ready".

Lucas opened his book, which had a photo of him that was probably taken when he was a couple of years younger. LUCAS LEONARD LONDON. DOB: JUNE 29, 200R.

"This is going to be fun, I know that much" he said sarcastically. "I hope you enjoy international travel".

"Never been to another country" I told him. "My family couldn't afford it".

"That kind of sucks" Lucas replied. "Then again, traveling sucks as well, sometimes. I mean, look at my legs".

"Well, right now those legs aren't that crazily long. Although we should probably avoid the news vans from here on out".

Lucas laughed dryly.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

Ah...pizza. One of my favorite foods to order and eat for lunch, this place was my favorite by far. They had the best doughy crust, and the pepperoni was practically an inch thick. It didn't really melt in your mouth, but I'd always preferred foods with some substance, you know what I mean?

And, watching reruns of the Pokémon TV show (I know I'm 24, but don't judge), I was somewhat happy with my lot in life. It had been four years since my diagnosis, and, if the doctor's prognosis had been correct, I only had a few more months left to wreck havoc. A few more months to feel truly alive.

If only my pet Weezing hadn't come in to butt in on my bliss.

I was just sitting there, munching on my third slice of pizza, when the purple Poison type floated in through a window. I didn't know what to think, but the news couldn't be good. I had a sign right outside my room that my pet Pokémon were not allowed to come in when the door was closed under any circumstances. You would think that, if they were actually disobeying me, that there was some kind of problem going on.

"What is it, Weezing?" I asked it. "I'm busy watching Ash catch Pikachu, damn it!"

"Master, Sir Mortimer-".

"Just call me Kieran".

"Sir Kieran-".

 _"What did I just say?"_

"Okay, Kieran. According to reliable sources, Lucas London, the boy who transformed into a Zoroark, is traveling towards the Zoroark habitat in Quebec. He's going to learn powers of illusion there, powers that may be enough to challenge you".

"Why should I care? I got _nothing_ to lose" I said, waving my arm around this room. "A few more months, and I'm checking out of here".

"But Kieran...you know that he's going to be dangerous if he gets these powers. You must meet him at the Zoroark habitat".

I looked at my clock. It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and I knew that the habitat would be a quick flight, if you managed to find it. For the most part, it wasn't on maps, so it could take hours to find it even if you were within ten miles of its borders. It was in the middle of the northern woods, so I understood why.

"All right. I'm going" I said. "Will you call a Crobat in here?"

"Yes, of course, Kieran. Just wait for it to come, and then you'll be ready to fly in there. You don't want to drive?"

"No. Too tough to find" I said. "Better to look for it by air, you know?"

"Of course. Just wait five minutes".

I stood up and turned off the TV. There was no point in continuing to watch the show when I wouldn't be able to finish the episode. There really wasn't, and if I had ever believed that there was, I had been deluding myself.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

Getting through the border control wasn't too difficult. All we had to do was show our passports, and there were some stares at our new Pokémon forms, but they ultimately let us in. If someone was going to cause trouble, it was unlikely that there would be a serious threat from a pair of teenagers that had turned into a Lucario and a Zoroark.

Finding the habitat was only slightly harder. It wasn't shown on maps, but Samuel seemed to have a general sense of where he was going. The weird thing was, so did I. I got a feeling that there would be a place nearby that could really help me realize my potential. I didn't think this sense was aura, but there might have been something else guiding me.

The scenery began to get less mountainous, with pine woods being a greater feature. We also saw billboards in kilometers rather than miles, and French words were listed next to the English. Really, those are the typical things you'd expect after crossing into another country.

Eventually, the sun began to sink, turning the sky orange. It was one of the prettiest sunsets I had ever seen, and I reclined further in my seat. I didn't fall asleep, but I did have a great time watching the trees flash by us.

Perhaps I _did_ fall into a little bit of a doze, because the next thing I remember is Samuel saying, "Okay...we're here".

I opened my eyes to find that the sun was completely down, and it was getting dark. Already a few stars had begun to appear in the evening sky.

The scenery hadn't changed too much. There were trees all over the place, some clumped together as though they were mating. We were at the top of a circular valley perhaps five miles in diameter, with a river cutting through it. I could tell that, making up one piece of what looked like it could be a pizza, there was a small town made up of houses.

"That's where we're going" Samuel said. "Cars aren't allowed in the village, so I'm afraid it's on foot from here".

I groaned. Standing up, I found that my legs were pretty stiff from riding in the car for so long.

"Lean on me if you need" he told me. "It's about a two-mile walk into the village, so keep up your strength".

We began on our way down, passing pine trees upon pine trees upon pine trees. It was as if Arceus had decreed that this valley was meant for pine trees and nothing else. Which, really, made little sense, because it wasn't _just_ trees. You get my point, though. There were a lot of trees.

There were a few flowers in some clearings, though. From the high point that we were standing on, we could see quite a lot, and even in the night these were visible. I couldn't wait to see what the clearings looked like in the daytime, because it would no doubt be breathtaking. Large swaths of what looked like prairie grass dotted the landscape.

"Is your aura vision working?" I asked Samuel. "Do you know where we're going to be staying tonight?"

"Not yet" the Lucario said. "But I can figure it out the closer we get to the village. Follow me".

And with that, we continued into the valley. For the most part, I only had to hold Samuel's hand rather than completely lean on him for support. Even though my legs were still fairly stiff, I enjoyed the walk very much. It was pretty awesome, watching the stars slowly turn above us.

It was no wonder that this was the place where the Zoroarks lived. This mysterious forest really looked like a great place to practice illusions. I could only hope that my skills I would learn here might be applicable to my new life.

* * *

After what must have been at least seventy-five minutes or so, we finally arrived at the edge of the village. From what I could see, most of the houses were log cabins, but they did have electric lighting. Streets made of dirt, rather than cobblestone or concrete, cut through the area. The houses were not arranged in any particular manner, but most of them all looked pretty much the same.

"I've heard that the village is socialist in nature" Samuel told me. "Pretty much everyone here has the same opportunities, and they share their resources. That's why so many of the houses are so similar".

I nodded. "Let's just find this place. I'm pretty bushed".

"I know. We're almost there, Lucas".

I felt dead on my feet by this point. Had I not been holding the hand of Samuel Cranmore, I might have been eating dirt for dinner. I just wanted to find where we were going to be staying at.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably not more than five minutes, we arrived at a house that looked pretty much the same as the rest of them. Samuel took out his paw and knocked for a few seconds. There was no doorbell.

I was about to suggest that we just find a place to bed down in the woods when a Zoroark, slightly shorter than myself, came to the door. Instead of being dark red, its ponytail was blue.

"Are you Lucas London?" a female voice asked. It was coming from its mouth, so the Zoroark greeting us was a woman.

I nodded. "That is me".

"And Samuel Cranmore?"

The Lucario standing next to me, supporting me, nodded. "We've come to see you".

"Yes. Come in, and I'll cook something up for dinner that I'm sure you'll like. You are going to be staying with us. My name, by the way, is Carla".

"Thanks, Carla" I said. Really, this Zoroark woman was hospitable, more so than I could say about my mother. People always talk about Southern hospitality, and the stereotype of Northerners to not be hospitable is very much true. I couldn't wait to see what she had for us to eat.

Later, while we were sitting around the table, Samuel tried to get some conversation going. However, Carla seemed to already know what we were going to say. I was pretty sure that the power of Zoroarks did not involve reading minds, but I could have been wrong. I was still fairly new to this whole turning-into-a-Pokémon gig, so that might have been part of the reason why.

It was a delicious dinner, even better since I hadn't eaten for nine or ten hours. "My husband and son are already in bed, but you'll see them in the morning. We've got a man coming who is going to help you work on your illusions, Lucas. I think you're going to like him very much".

I walked into the back room, which looked kind of like a summer camp cabin. There was a bathroom adjoining it, and everything was made of pine wood. It was a place that so many people would want to live if they could, but no one could.

"The Wi-Fi password is 1652791-571" said Carla. "Here is your bed".

I looked at it. It wasn't particularly impressive, but it looked reasonably comfortable. I got in, pulled the blankets over me, and took a surprisingly long time to fall asleep.

For the most part, I was thinking about how much I liked this place. Maybe part of being a Zoroark was liking these natural settings a lot, but I didn't know for sure. And I wasn't sure that I would ever figure it out completely. All I knew was that I was very tired and very, very grateful to be here.

Finally, I managed to get to sleep.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

It took a very long time to find our target. Even though we knew that the village was somewhere in southern Quebec, Quebec was a large province, and Canada was a large country. The second largest in the world, if you go by land area. Although we had a little bit of a clue where to go, it wasn't all that helpful.

You could have asked me, "Kieran, what about all of the lights?"

My answer to that question would have been, which lights? The city of Montreal was easy to see, and we knew that the habitat would be a decent bit away from that. There would be a few lights, but not more than would be expected of a small town.

I knew it was in the middle of a valley, though, so I ordered Crobat to make sure that we found the right area. If we touched down in the wrong town, we would have looked pretty stupid. In addition, there was no guarantee that we would have been able to find a hotel to stay at, even if we weren't immediately booed out of the place. It wasn't every day that you saw a young man just fly into town on the back of a Crobat.

Then, I remembered.

I hadn't used my aura abilities in a while. To be honest, I was somewhat scared of them. I had no idea why Arceus wanted me to have these powers, but he had given them to me anyways. That was the only possible explanation for what was going on.

As the sky was getting darker, I was getting more and more tired. Crobat didn't have any harnesses, so I had to keep on holding on. If I fell asleep, I would slide right off and fall thousands of feet to the ground. Somehow, I wasn't that cold either, this high up.

I reached out with my aura senses. Somehow, I had to figure out a way to find this village. I had to have faith.

Sure enough, I picked up on a village of Zoroarks just a few miles to the east of me. This was where I was going to go.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

I woke up, and was instantly in a good mood. I'd gotten such a good night's sleep that it was almost unreal. I got out of bed and went into the doorway next to the kitchen, where I saw that Samuel was having a discussion with the Zoroark parents.

"Of course, he can stay as long as he likes" Carla said. I realized they were talking about me. There's nothing I hate more in this world than not being privy to conversations that relate to Lucas Leonard London.

"I don't know about that" a male Zoroark replied. "He's probably being hunted. They'll stop at nothing to catch him, unless he uses his illusions".

"Good thing Eric's coming today, then, right, Dad?" said a smaller, also male voice. I took this to mean that Carla's son was present. I'd been the last one to wake up.

"Yes, it is good, Malcolm" said the male Zoroark. "Lucas needs to learn how to protect himself".

I decided that now would be a good time to show myself. "I'm up" I said, stepping out from behind the door to the kitchen.

In the kitchen were two Zoroarks, one with blue hair and one with red hair. In addition, there was a Zorua with red hair, which was evidently a male. They seemed to be eating some kind of berry dish.

"You're Malcolm" I said to the Zorua.

"That's right" the young Pokémon said. "And I see that you are also a Zoroark. Lucas?"

"That's me" I said. "Although I'm not a Zoroark originally".

"Meema told me" Malcolm replied. "Meema told me that you were a human, and you turned into a Zoroark. How did you do that?"

"No idea" I replied. "I'm happy to say that I don't know. Well, I'm not happy about it, but you get what I mean".

The male Zoroark looked at me. "Greetings. My name is Jason. I would serve you some Oran berry custard, but you're going to be working on illusions today, and it's best to do illusions on an empty stomach. You know what I mean?"

Carla explained it to me. "Turning yourself into something else...can be quite sickening at first. Luckily, there's someone here to help with that".

"And who might that be?" I asked.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it" Malcolm said.

The Zorua went to the door, and on the other side was a medium-sized man wearing glasses and a red tank top. He looked like he was ready to do something important, which I supposed he was.

"Hello. I'm Eric. Where is Lucas?"

I walked to the door, shaking the man's hand. "I'm Lucas London. I believe I'm the one you were looking for".

"Yes, I'm looking for Lucas London" Eric said. "My name is Eric Owsley, and I'm going to be teaching you illusions. I'll also have your Lucario friend come with me. Where is Samuel?"

Just then, I heard the sound of a toilet flushing, then the sound of water running, and then the bathroom door opened. "Sorry" said Samuel. "I was just taking a piss".

"Okay, then" Eric said. "You guys, come with me. We're going to the top of the hill. I hope you're up for meeting my team".

"What is your team?" Samuel asked.

"I have a team of five Pokémon that I carry in these Pokéballs" he said.

Eric took out five Pokéballs. They were five different colors, which were red, blue, yellow, green, and black.

"Where did you get all of those different colors?" Samuel asked.

"I'll explain later" Eric said. "Let's go. There's no time to waste".

* * *

After twenty minutes of walking, we had exited the village, where it was about eight in the morning. The sun had come up, and the morning sunlight illuminated the flowery fields. Many young Zoruas were running around, having a good time. Some of them were staring at me; evidently, it was well-known that the village was hosting a former human. How long until this put them in danger?

 _No._ I couldn't bear that thought. I couldn't let myself think I was bringing down harm upon these people. I needed to be able to live with myself, and this was just not going to happen if I kept feeling guilty for something that _might_ happen.

"Want to meet my team?" Eric asked, sounding a lot friendlier now that we were away from the Zoroark family.

"Sure" Samuel said.

Eric took out his first Pokéball, revealing a Haunter. It looked at us like it wanted to scream at us, but wasn't going to in order to not piss us off. Which, admittedly, made me a little pissed off.

"Haunter doesn't talk too much" Eric said. "He's really not going to hurt you; he's kind of shy, but he always does look at you like that. Don't ask me why, I've never figured it out. I've had him since I was ten".

"How old are you now?" I asked. I knew that this was often a fairly rude question to ask, but I got the feeling that this man wouldn't mind.

"I'm 34" he said. "Twice your age. In fact, I've had all of these since I was old enough to be a trainer. I don't have a Zorua or Zoroark, but I'm trained in order to train people about illusions".

"That's good to know" the Lucario next to us said.

Haunter re-entered his Pokéball, and Eric took out the blue one. Now, standing in front of us was a Golem.

"Be careful with this guy" the trainer said. "He can be very aggressive at times, but he doesn't see you guys as threats. That's good".

"Would he help to defend us?" I asked Eric.

"No way to tell" the man said. "He's unreliable in emergency situations. Let us hope that we don't wind up in one of those".

"Hear, hear" Samuel said.

At this point, we were about halfway up the hill. The village was still visible, but barely. We were now hundreds of feet above it. As Golem stared back at us, looking as though he was about to strike, Eric recaptured the Pokémon.

"That's a relief" I said.

"I know" Eric replied. "I think we have time for one more before we get to the top. Come out, Beautifly".

Beautifly was very friendly. She wanted to have small talk with us, but I was trying to focus most of my air on walking up this steep hill. And it _was_ steep, to the point that it would make a double-black diamond ski slope. This was not a casual hike, that was for sure.

Samuel, on the other hand, had far greater endurance than I did. I supposed that this was something that came with being a Fighting type. His aura organs were glimmering in the sun, which was getting warmer the higher up we went.

At this point, once Beautifly was back in her Pokéball, the prairie grass was all there was, with virtually no more trees. There were quite a few rocks, but the view was gorgeous. I could tell why this would be a great place to practice illusions.

"Mesprit is going to help you with this" Eric said, taking out his yellow Pokéball and releasing the being inside.

A Mesprit came out. It was a light blue Pokémon for the most part, except for its pink hair. It looked at us, somewhat angrily.

"How did you get Mesprit?" Samuel asked Eric. "You know it's a Legendary!"

Eric looked at both of us seriously. "You know that I have good connections, enough to get things like this for my team. Now, Mesprit, I want you to teach Lucas London some illusion skills. Can you do that?"

Mesprit nodded. "Lucas, I know that you need to be able to protect yourself. That's my goal here. I will teach you the powers of illusion, in order for you to be able to hide from your pursuers".

"I have pursuers?" I asked. I wasn't sure that I was in too much danger just yet. Then again, I didn't really know that much.

"Yes" Mesprit said. "I know this may come as a shock, but your being a Zoroark has put a target on your back. Already, the news is covering it to an insane degree, and it is important that you learn how to disguise yourself. What would you like to practice being first?"

I thought about it. "I want to be a Lucario".

I had always loved Lucario, simply because my first name was _Lucas._ Really, they shared such similarities that it was almost like a coincidence. Except that it wasn't.

"The name Lucas. It means 'light'. You must learn how to foster the light that is within your soul, or else it will fizzle out and you will be left as a Zoroark".

That sounded so New Age-y that I visibly cringed. Nobody I knew did that sort of thing, and I didn't even see why anyone would care. In a world with Pokémon, why need magic when you had such advanced _science?_

"Okay. How do I harness the power of light. I thought illusions were a Dark type thing".

"Oh, they are" Mesprit said. "But you can do it. Imagine a Lucario. Concentrate really hard. Focus all of your energy on picturing an Aura Pokémon, with blue fur, a peach-furred chest, and black aura organs. Picture yourself becoming one".

I remembered reading, in a Biology textbook, about Zoroarks and their powers. They couldn't take the actual _form_ of a different Pokémon, or a human, but only the _appearance_ of one. I'd still be just as much a Zoroark if I managed to become a Lucario; I'd just look like #448 instead of #571. I didn't see how much of an effect this was going to have, but I did know that it would at least be somewhat helpful.

"Focus, Lucas London".

I pictured a large, furry Lucario. Six feet, two inches tall, one hundred and seventy-five pounds of pure Steel and Fighting. I pictured the blue leg fur where one would wear pants, short black legs, and a chest spike. I imagined myself evaporating and then turning into one. How hard could it be?

I concentrated so hard that I began to feel hot and dizzy. The morning sun wasn't that intense this far north, but maybe it was my concentration that caused me to collapse to the ground.

The next thing I remember is coming to on the ground, with Samuel fanning me with his paw. "There. You're awake".

"What happened?" I groaned. It wasn't unlike when I'd passed out in the Lucario's hospital room. This time, the Lucario was the one worried about _me._ The roles were reversed here.

"You passed out from focusing too hard" said Mesprit. "You need to relax, Lucas. You're going to get it eventually. Maybe try a little less hard, this time".

I nodded and decided to take her advice. Once again I tried to tune the world out...all that mattered was my turning into a Lucario, or at least looking as though I had. This was the thing I had to do. I had to imagine myself as a Lucario, and I would look like one.

And then I remembered what had happened. I had to focus less hard...perhaps a lot less hard. If I didn't tune my focus down a little bit, I might lose consciousness again. That was one thing I didn't want.

I relaxed a little bit...which was enough to fall down on my ass, crushing my tail.

Let me tell you, that **hurt.**

"Are you okay, Lucas?" Mesprit asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I said, my eyes watering from pain. "Just...fell down. Was I focusing too hard again?"

"It might have been the opposite problem" the Legendary Pokémon said. "You may not have been focusing hard enough. You need to make sure that you have your eye on the prize, but you also have to focus on not passing out. Let me tell you, this is a difficult balance to maintain".

I stood back up with assistance from Samuel. "One more try?" I queried. I was feeling pretty exhausted, if truth must be told.

"Yes" Mesprit said. "One more try. Keep your eye on the prize, Lucas. Keep your focus in the middle".

I stood up, feeling the warm sun heating up my fur. Then, I focused once more on my goal.

This time, it was like there was a gauge that was teetering on a fine line between too much focus and too little. It wasn't something I couldn't handle, but it was like trying to keep your balance on a tightrope, something I've never done before.

I imagined a Lucario standing right in front of me. Not hard, because there really was one. Samuel.

Like a library scanner, the type they use when you're checking out a book, I imagined that I was scanning Samuel, much like Doopliss from _Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door._ I had to look like a Lucario, or else I would fail. But I couldn't focus too hard, or else I'd embarrass, or even hurt, myself. That wouldn't be an ideal outcome.

I was changing shape. Not literally, none of my bones were changing or anything like that. But I was getting smaller, and I could sense that I looked different. I had my eyes closed, but I could "see" the meter in front of me, like a meter on a car that tells you how much longer until you're out of gas, as "220 miles till empty tank". I had to keep that needle in between the F and the E.

And then, I could sense that some change had happened. I opened my eyes and looked down at myself.

I was a Lucario. Or, at least, I looked like one.

"Nice job, Lucas!" Samuel congratulated me. "We can be buddies now!".

I laughed. "Weren't we already buddies?" I asked in my Zoroark voice.

And, immediately, I saw myself change shape. I was back in my normal form. Not as a human being, but as a Zoroark...which I suppose had become "normal" for me.

"Sorry about that" Eric said, coming back into focus. "I wasn't talking to you guys, because I didn't want to break your concentration. But, Lucas, if you talk, that automatically breaks the illusion. So hold illusions only as long as you are able to go without speaking".

I nodded. "Thanks for the tip, Eric. Can we head back down the hill now? I'm getting really hungry".

It was true. I felt like I had burned about ten thousand calories from trying the illusions just three times. I wasn't even sure that I could make it all the way back _down_ the hill to the house that Carla, Jason, and Malcolm inhabited. It would take quite a bit of effort.

Before any of us could say anything more, though, a shape came walking up the hill. It was a man with graying, collar-length hair. I was wondering what was going on with him. I'd never seen the guy before.

Next to him was a Weezing, the large, purple Poison Pokémon. It was quite a sight, particularly considering just how ghastly and abnormal it looked amid all of the bright greens of the Canadian countryside.

"What is it?" asked Samuel. "You see, we were kind of just hanging out here, minding our own business, and then you have to butt in on our bliss".

"Don't worry" the man said. He stepped closer into our view, and it was now possible to see what he looked like. With a heavy overcoat on, as well as a wide-brimmed hat and a beak-shaped mask, it was clear to see that he liked baggy clothes.

He took off his mask, revealing a gaunt, frail face with long, collar-length and graying hair. He did not look healthy.

"Who _are_ you?" I asked.

The man leaned in closer to us. "My name is Kieran Mortimer" he said. "Misery loves company, and I am quite lonely".


	8. Violent Hill

**What do you get when you cross two Pokémorph teenagers, fanfiction, and a terminally ill man with nothing to lose? You get ZOROARK'S PENDANT!**

 **I didn't find any time for writing this on Friday, so now I'm working on this over the weekend. I am hoping that you enjoy this chapter, and make sure to review it, just to tell me how I am doing at this.**

 **One quick thing: In my headcanon, Arceus is different from the Judeo-Christian conception of God. I view it like Samirah al-Abbas, the Muslim girl from Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard, views the Norse gods, in that Arceus may or may not have been created by the one God.**

 **Also, if you have not yet joined my Discord, it would be awesome if you did so. I'll PM you an invite link if you are interested. You just PM me first, telling me that you want to join.**

 _Answer: Curse Of The Lucario and its sequel, for sure. They got me into this and forever changed my life. I also enjoy Evergreen by Jirulius a lot, assuming that I can't say this one._

 _Question: Do you have a Discord, and do you intend to get one if you do not?_

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

I should probably explain how I got to the top of that hill, when I haven't even explained what had happened the previous night. Without knowing that, there is simply no way you can understand what was going on.

Once Crobat and I had finally found the habitat in a rural part of southern Quebec, we flew down towards the Zoroark village. By now, it was almost midnight, having been completely dark for quite a while, and the stars were magnificent. I was pretty exhausted; I just wanted to find a place to sleep, because there would be plenty of havoc to wreck in the morning.

After touching down just outside the village, I bade goodbye to the Crobat and decided to walk along the avenue until I found a place to sleep. I didn't know how easy it would be to find a family that would be willing to take me in for the night. After all, I didn't look the best-dressed, not by a long shot. In fact, with my huge mask, I probably looked too mysterious for someone to trust. Which I suppose is something to be expected, and you can't really blame them for that.

I decided to look for a hotel. Sure enough, I found one that looked somewhat shabby, but it would fit my needs. After all, I wasn't too worried; I had little to lose at this point. If there was a gunfight that broke out, like in an old Western movie, I had only lost a few months of my life.

The hotel was called the Lucario Lounge, and it appeared to be four stories tall. I had no baggage to carry with me; I hadn't even brought any extra clothes other than my usual overcoat, and I had few luxury possessions. Even then, it wasn't like I was coming here just to relax. I had a mission to carry out.

"Hello. I would like to spend the night" I said to the Lucario at the front desk. Yes, the village was not completely Zoroark and Zorua; there were other evolutionary lines present.

The Lucario looked back at me. "That'll be $44.80 for a one-bed room. Is that what you want?"

I nodded. "I've got the money" I said, pulling out a wad of bills from the pocket of my jacket.

The Lucario behind the desk counted the money before letting me in. "Your room is number 448. That's the fourth floor. You got that?"

 _Honestly._ Did he think I was a toddler? I was an _adult,_ so of course I knew how to get to the fourth floor.

I walked over to the elevator once I had been given the room key. However, the elevator appeared not to be working. No surprise, really. It wasn't like I shouldn't have expected this, but it still pissed me off regardless. You never wanted to stay at a hotel with a broken elevator.

Instead of taking the lift, I took the stairs. I rarely fully appreciated my lack of stamina, but this was one of those moments. It might have only been three flights of stairs to get to the fourth floor, but I was short of breath long before then. I had to hold on to the railing the entire time.

Once I got to the correct floor, I was huffing and puffing like an asthmatic. Searching for the correct door, I found room 448 and tried the key. The door swung open with a creaking noise, and I was able to appraise the room the way it really was.

It was nothing spectacular, just one bed with one bathroom adjacent to it. Aside from those two features, there was what appeared to be an alarm clock of some sort.

I was absolutely bushed, but I had to get up fairly early in order to do what I had come to do. So I set the alarm for 7:00 and hit the hay, crashing almost immediately.

The alarm clock woke me up at the appointed time, playing one of my favorite songs: "Diamond On A Landmine" by Billy Talent. I supposed it was fitting, given that I was now in Canada, that a Canadian band was playing on the alarm clock.

After heading downstairs and eating a quick breakfast from the buffet (there was no need to get dressed), I bade farewell to the Lucario at the front desk. Searching for the path, I walked through the village for what felt like quite some time.

Finally, I found the road leading up the hill. It was a steep climb, but my aura could sense something at the top...something I desperately wanted. Right now, I had one goal and one goal only, so this made sense. I had to find Lucas London.

The morning sun was beautiful. Maybe, had I not been so determined to find Lucas, I could have just gone and picked some flowers. I'd tear them apart afterwards, since misery loves company, but now was not the time for that. Right now, I had to get to the top of the hill.

I began my trek uphill. It wasn't as difficult I had thought it would be, probably because I had had that night of rest. I was hoping that I would find Lucas at the top, and maybe strike some fear into his heart. I couldn't kill the boy- it was far too interesting of a story, an answer I desperately wanted to figure out before I checked out of this world for good.

No, I would just have to subdue him somehow. Or maybe not. I wanted to see how scared I could make him. Create as much chaos as possible, that was my modus operandi in my new life, the life that would soon be ending.

By the time I reached the top of the hill, I saw two Lucario, as well as a Mesprit and a thirty-something man who appeared to be a trainer.

At first, I was confused. However, I then realized what I was looking at.

As soon as one of the Lucario had spoken, it ended up on the ground, having changed into a Zoroark. That was when I knew I had found my target.

Lucas London was standing right on the hill! I had done it!

Now, I had decided, was the time to reveal myself. It had not been a second before.

The Lucario standing next to Lucas took notice of me. Looking rather irritated, he said, "What is it? You see, we were kind of just hanging out here, minding our own business, and then you have to butt in on our bliss".

"Don't worry" I said, trying to suppress a laugh. I took off my mask, trying to make myself look more intimidating. I was going to make them think me an ally, then betray them. I was going to cause as much chaos as I could.

"Who _are_ you?" Lucas London asked me in an accusatory tone. He bared his teeth at me like a lion.

I decided to cut right to the chase. "My name is Kieran Mortimer. Misery loves company, and I am quite lonely".

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The man didn't look threatening at first glance. Of course, this probably meant he was a proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. He might be a nice guy on paper, but there might also be a dark side to him.

"Kieran, huh?" Eric asked. He'd been so quiet that we had almost forgotten he was there to begin with. "You don't look good. Are you sure that you're okay?"

Kieran laughed. "Believe it or not, I'm only twenty-four. I'm a lot younger than I look".

So this old man was, in fact, a young man. That wasn't something I was expecting. Maybe, even though he had a Weezing in tow, he was a good guy, someone we could trust.

Of course, given so many other things, we could never be so lucky. I had never thought I would end up coming across such a weird necklace, one that would turn me into a Zoroark. Maybe it would be pushing it to expect Kieran Mortimer to be a nice guy.

"Anything else you want to ask of me?" the young man said.

Samuel stepped forwards. "I feel like you're looking straight through me. Are you an aura user?"

Kieran laughed. "I _am._ Something like one in every three thousand humans is able to sense aura, my being a lucky one. If you could call it _lucky_ ".

"What do you mean?" I asked. I had always felt jealous of those who could use aura. Those people were essentially superhuman, an adjective that I wished I could have used to describe myself. Instead, I couldn't even be a normal human. What kind of lot had Arceus cast for me?

The way it was going, I didn't see how Kieran couldn't have a nasty streak to him, somehow. It's been said that every rose has its thorn, and the question was: what was Kieran's thorn? There was just no way to know. Not until we spent a little more time with him.

The thing was, however, I was exhausted. I didn't fully trust my ability to avoid myself from collapsing right here and now, let alone make it all the way back down the hill. Like I said, it felt like I had burned 10,000 calories, which would mean running dozens of miles for a human. And I'd never been in the best shape.

"My aura abilities...came at a price" Kieran said, shrugging. "I don't know if I'll tell you what that was just yet. I'll need to get to trust you more. Are you willing to hear the story?"

I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear the story. Mesprit had already been called back into her Pokéball, and I got the feeling that she was going to be staying there for a while. Should Kieran turn out to be dangerous, however, we could really use the help the Legendary would provide.

"Let's hear it!" Samuel said, stepping out from behind me. For a Lucario who had previously been a human, he sure seemed to be confident. He was holding out his fists aggressively in front of him, as though he was itching for a fight.

"Stop that!" I said. "He might be an ally".

"I can be either your ally or your enemy" the young man said. "What you do right now can determine that".

It was as though a dam broke in my mind. I now knew, with absolute certainty, that this guy was a threat. How could he not be, when he spoke in such dangerous terms? There was no way that he was completely benign.

"That's a threat" Samuel said. "You're going to have it!"

I couldn't do anything to stop him from attacking Kieran. It seemed that, when Samuel Cranmore was dead set on something, there was no keeping him from it. You could get out of his way, or you could pull a Hail Mary, trying to stop him, but risk hurting yourself. Really, there were no good options.

Samuel went out at Kieran, throwing a Force Palm towards his side. However, the 24-year-old man was ready for it, and he dodged with ease. What he hadn't noticed was that the Weezing next to him took some damage. Its face, perpetually in that one creepy expression, began to get angry, and the Weezing started to grow bigger.

"Why did you do that, Samuel?" Eric asked the Lucario angrily. "Now he's going to kill us all!"

"Not if we can resolve this peacefully, Eric Owsley" Kieran said, a hint of venom in his voice. Gone was the frail man who had seemed benevolent. He'd been exposed for what he really was, and none of us liked it.

"How did you know my name?" the trainer asked angrily.

Kieran shrugged. "Aura abilities. I can sense just about anything about you. Your age, your blood type, your general health situation and mood...you're an open book. You're thirty-four years old, aren't you?"

Eric gritted his teeth, meaning that he could evidently not lie and say no at the same time. He was, in fact, probably 34.

I wasn't happy with Samuel. However, the war had begun, and I had to fight in it, regardless of whether or not I wanted to. I aimed a Night Slash straight at Kieran. Let him feel the pain that he was probably about to cause us.

Just then, the air began to smell like rotten eggs, like the geysers they have at Yellowstone National Park. As far as I knew, however, there were no hot springs near here. And, considering that we could see for miles from the top of this hill, I could feel reasonably certain of this.

And then, I realized something. The air was now covered in a thin purple haze, similar to smoke, but a lot more noticeable. There was only one conclusion that could be drawn: My Night Slash had set off the Weezing. It was now using Poison Gas.

The smell felt suffocating, it was that horrible. I could see Samuel holding his snout, although he wasn't in much trouble. Steel types couldn't be affected by poison, but Dark types most definitely could. I had to be careful.

Could I do another Night Slash, aiming it at Kieran this time?

It was either going to be very brave or very, _very_ foolish, but I couldn't just stand here and do nothing. At some point, the poisonous gas would force me unconscious, possibly causing me to suffocate. It would take all of the oxygen out of my lungs, and I would just die. I couldn't let that happen.

"I'll take Kieran!" I yelled to Samuel, mustering up all of my strength to get those words out. It was tough, since I was getting short of breath. "You'll run to safety, with Eric. I can hold him off, or try to negotiate".

"You're asking for it!" Kieran shouted. "Your Lucario friend didn't _have_ to attack me!"

Before I could say anything, the young man, with strength that did not befit someone as gaunt as he was, punched Samuel in the head, knocking him far away. I could only watch as he flew, as if thrown by an explosion, over the field, and landed somewhere in the tall grass surrounding the place.

My rage exploded. Whatever the Lucario had done, he was still my friend. He didn't deserve this, to be thrown unconscious into the field...or worse. _Maybe he's dead,_ I thought, not exactly reassured by that idea.

I could hear Eric screaming at me to hold off, that he'd run away with me, and to leave Samuel. However, I didn't know if I was capable of that. My vision was already starting to darken, and my lungs were starving for air. The gas was already starting to take effect.

I charged again, a Scratch this time. It was all that I felt like I was capable of in my weakened state. I didn't expect it to work, but I was determined to try to hold Kieran off for long enough to escape. Perhaps we could get Samuel along the way, although we had no way of knowing just how far out into the grass he had been thrown.

Just then, I fell to my knees, feeling dizzy. It was as if I had just stood up very abruptly after lying down next to a furnace. I could barely see or hear any more, and the nausea was also pretty bad.

Leaning over, I retched the nonexistent contents of my stomach onto the grass. I had literally been going _nil per os_ the whole day, so it had no effect other than to cause me more pain and speed up my loss of consciousness.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

Pain...so much pain. Really, it was more of an ache, but it was still terrible.

I tried to open my eyes, but my head hurt too much. It was enough to rival someone with meningitis, that bad. I felt like I had been cast in a mold of cement. My limbs were almost impossible to move.

My aura could sense that there was a doctor near me, or someone in the medical profession...someone who had washed their hands and been sure to take precautions. If so...

I opened my eyes at last. I was in what looked like a hospital room. Unlike the one I had woken up in after being stabbed, this one was completely different. It didn't look quite so white; instead, there was a wooden floor, which I wondered if it was even sanitary. I saw that there was one corner of the room with curtains pulled up around it. Other than that, my bed was the only one in the room.

Using aura, since it hurt a lot to talk, I said, "I'm awake. What happened?"

Eric, the man from earlier, was still in the room. "Kieran hit you, making you fly in the air all the way over the field. You got a nasty concussion. Don't you remember?"

I supposed that I'd been unconscious as soon as Kieran had hit me, and I didn't remember flying through the air. That didn't answer one other question...what of Lucas? What had happened to him?

Aura was a skill I was very happy to have in that moment. Even though my concussion might make it a little more difficult to sense, I tried to see beyond the curtain. After all, wasn't that where Lucas was likely to be?

I tried to pick up on his physical state, but it wasn't working. Clearly, something inside me had been muddled from my fall. That was the only possible explanation.

"Where's Lucas?" I decided to ask Eric. There was also a doctor in the room with me, a Lucario wearing a white lab coat, spectacles, and with a stethoscope around his neck like a pair of headphones. The Lucario doctor walked over to the curtains.

"He's behind here" the doctor said. "Are you sure you want to know? He's not dead, if that's what you're wondering".

"Sure" I said. I wanted to know how my master was doing, because I still saw him, somewhat, as that, despite the fact that we were both kind of in this together.

The doctor pulled back the curtain. Lying on the bed was an unconscious Zoroark, with an oxygen mask over his face. He didn't look good.

"Is that Lucas London?" I asked.

"Indeed" said the doctor. "I'm afraid he got hit with the Weezing's poison, so we'll keep him here until he wakes up. For a physical Poison attack, the antidote can be administered either intramuscularly or by spraying it on the skin. With a poison gas attack, there's really no way to speed up the recovery other than through supportive measures. But he's going to wake up soon".

"Did you tell his parents?" Eric said.

The Lucario doctor frowned. "I've not been able to establish contact with them, because I don't even know their phone numbers. I did not even know that Lucas had living parents".

I shrugged. "It's not like they'd care, anyway".

I supposed that, were Lucas to die, the Londons _would_ care, but I didn't see that that mattered right now. I just hoped that Lucas would wake up.

After a few more minutes, the Zoroark in the bed next to me opened his eyes. He was trying to talk, I could tell, but the oxygen mask was muffling his voice.

"Don't panic, Lucas" the Lucario doctor said. "It's just there to help you breathe. Just a precaution".

I could tell that Lucas was wishing he had the ability to speak using aura. Really, wouldn't all of us?

"You were attacked by a Weezing, don't you remember?" the doctor asked him. "Poison Gas".

"How long are we leaving the mask on, Doc?" Eric asked. Like on the hill earlier, we had almost forgotten that he was there. The man could really blend in when he wanted to. Clearly, this had been one of those times.

"In a few minutes, we'll see if he's breathing normally without it. Then, you guys can leave. We'll give you guys some tips as to what he can do in order to recover better, but he can return to the Greenlakes once he is discharged".

"Greenlakes?" I asked.

"The Zoroark family that is hosting you and him. Carla, Jason, and Malcolm...their last name is Greenlake. They know about what happened, and we'll make sure you find your way back. They live only about a quarter of a mile from the hospital".

That was good to know, I guessed.

Two minutes later, they decided to test it, to see if Lucas could breathe normally without the mask. The conclusion was that he could, although he might feel a little short of breath for a day or two. He should avoid doing anything too strenuous, although he should also be exposed to plenty of fresh air. The doctor advised that he go outside after lunch, maybe go on a short walk. This would help to get the poison out of his system.

"Sounds good" Lucas said, although I could tell he was short of breath even here. He didn't sound like he was up to even a short walk yet, but he would have to do that in order to get back to the Greenlake household.

He climbed out of the bed, stumbling a little. Then, he started walking in the direction of the exit.

"Hold on!" the doctor said. "I didn't discharge you yet".

"What about the medical bills?" Eric asked.

The doctor looked at him with a funny look. "Have you never lived here? For things like this, health care is pretty much free. There's nothing to really worry about. No paperwork. It's just as simple as that. We help whoever needs to be helped".

"So...socialism, basically?" I asked.

The doctor shrugged. "I suppose. Anyway, yes, you may leave, although make sure that he eats a good lunch and gets plenty of fresh air this afternoon. It's already about 1 PM, so it's getting a bit late for lunch".

As if on cue, Lucas's stomach growled audibly. "I could eat a Rapidash" he said. "Let's go".

After the Lucario doctor handed us a sheet with some instructions on it, we started walking back. I was not nearly as steady on my feet as I had thought I would be, and Lucas had just almost died, so both of us were being supported by Eric. We probably looked like two petulant children being marched back home, not two 17-year-olds.

Eventually, we reached the Greenlake house, where we were greeted at the door by Malcolm the Zorua. The young child sure seemed energetic, practically the opposite of how I felt. I was told by Eric that it would be okay for me to drive back home to Hanover tomorrow, since Fighting types recovered quickly from injuries.

"How was your trip with that man, Eric?" the young Zorua asked. "It sounds like it was really scary".

"It was, but all's well that ends well" I replied.

Just then, Carla Greenlake came in. "Lunch is served. Lucas, it's important that you eat. Let's do this".

We walked into the dining room, where a meal of steak, bread served with olive oil, and Oran berry salad had been set up. After we quickly thanked Arceus for the meal, we started eating. It was some of the best food I had ever tasted, especially considering everything we had just been through.

Once the meal was over, there was a little more conversation around the table, but Lucas was just patting his stomach. For someone who had just been through something like he had, he sure seemed to have been hungry.

"I'm going to go outside" he said, gesturing to the door. "I feel like a million bucks now".

"That's good" I said. Turning to Carla and Jason, I asked, "Can I join him?"

They nodded. And so, I got up from the table and was fixing to get out of the door when Carla said, from behind me, "Wait up!"

I turned back towards the female Zoroark. "What is it?"

"Make sure that Lucas stays safe and doesn't go too far away. He still doesn't have too much energy, I'm sure".

I nodded. "I'll make sure to".

I walked out the door, not making any more eye contact with the Greenlakes.

* * *

 **Here it is: another chapter. It wasn't as long as I was expecting it to be, but hopefully a respectable length. This gets me over 100 pages, though, so that's a milestone. (One page is 275 words or so).**

 **Also, we're at 45 reviews. It'd be great if we could reach 100 before this story is over. I think we can do it, guys! (I'm thinking this will be 15-20 chapters).**

 **So, rate and review!**

 **SnowLucario out.**


	9. This Flower Don't Belong To Me

**Thank all of you guys for more than 3,000 views. That's about 150 a day! It's really going up, this story. **

_Answer: I think it's pretty obvious that I do have a Discord._

 _Question: Where in the US do you still want to visit?_

 **I've been getting a disappointingly small amount of reviews lately. The more reviews I get, the faster I write. That's not to say that I'll hold the story hostage, absolutely refusing to post another chapter until I get X amount of reviews, but I am more motivated the more feedback I get.**

 **In any case, here is another chapter. I hope you like it. And, just to stress, this is not a YAOI. They're just friends, that's all. I know I've said this before, but I feel that it is relevant here as well. Happy reading!**

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

For the most part, Samuel was telling most of the last part of the story, and for good reason. For much of that morning, I had been unconscious, knocked out by Poison Gas. I'd already seen Samuel thrown far away, and, for all I knew, he might not have survived.

Above all, I felt angry at the Lucario. It had been due to him that we'd even come up to Quebec in the first place; had he not suggested it, he and I would still be alive. Even then, he didn't have to attack Kieran. That man had never had good intentions with regards to us, we could be sure of that much.

I woke up later that day in what looked like a rustic hospital room. It still looked the inside of a log cabin, since it probably was, but the medical equipment was as modern as I had seen back at the hospital Samuel had been in after being stabbed. Someone had put an oxygen mask over my face, and I had a hard time remembering why at first.

Then, I recalled what had happened. I had been poisoned with an attack by Kieran's Weezing. This made me hate the man even more, and the mask was ridiculously itchy over my muzzle. All I wanted to do was to go back to the normal house.

Even though I felt slightly short of breath still, I was extremely hungry. We headed back to the Greenlakes' house, where we had a delicious meal. Then, recalling what the doctor had advised me to do, I decided to go for a walk. Not a long one, mind you, but the crisp air was going to help me get some of the poison out of my system.

As soon as I walked out the door, there was something very inexplicable that I felt. It was something I felt in my chest area, a tugging sensation, as though I was harnessed to a pole by an invisible rope, and slowly getting drawn closer and closer in towards it. No idea what was going on, I started to freak out a little bit inside.

The last time I had experienced something even _remotely_ similar to this, I had transformed into a Zoroark, a change that had not been reversed. Not yet, anyway. Maybe sometime in the future we would find a way to turn me back human, but for now I was stuck in this form.

Really, it was pretty cool to be a Pokémon. It was just the fact that there were people who wanted to know what was going on, and then I would never be able to tell them, because the truth was that I was myself unaware.

But...the pull. I looked at my waist, and I saw no harness, or any belt, or any form of clothing at all. I was completely naked except for all of the fur, which was warm enough for the crisp weather. I could see why so many Zoroarks would want to live here. The village was just so perfect in its simplicity, and yet it was laid out so well. I felt as though Arceus had made this a golden valley specifically for the species.

Of course, I couldn't spend all of my time fawning over how gorgeous the town was. I had a job to do.

Thinking once more on why I felt the irresistible, unexplainable tug towards the trees, I suddenly got an image in my mind of a very specific flower. It was so powerful that it forced me to my knees.

I was about to collapse completely; that was the weight of what was going on. Kieran Mortimer might have aura sensing capabilities, but did he have powers to create illusions, like Zoroarks did? Were we dealing with someone as powerful as a god?

 _No._ I couldn't believe that Kieran would be such a formidable enemy. If I kept on thinking that way, I was going to drive myself insane sooner or later.

I heard the sound of footsteps behind me. Turning around, I saw that the source was Samuel.

"You okay?" he asked me, seeing that I was kneeling on the ground, seemingly in agony.

"You came!" I exclaimed, taking his arm in order to get up. "But..why? Didn't they think I'd be fine on my own".

"Evidently not" the Lucario said, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, you were on oxygen just a couple of hours ago, so...yeah".

"That's fair" I replied. "But there's something else I need to tell you about".

Samuel had started walking with me, not seeming to question that the direction we were walking was taking us towards a place away from the village. Maybe this didn't make sense to him, but it sure did to me.

"Is it about how we're walking this way?" he asked.

 _Damn it, he found me out,_ I thought. _Can_ he _read minds or something?_

"Yes, it is" I replied, seeing no reason to lie to my friend.

"Care to tell me the reason? Or are you going to keep on giving me the silent treatment?"

That made no sense. Not telling him the answer was not the same thing as refusing point-blank to talk to him. "I'm not giving you the silent treatment" I said.

"Sure. What is the reason, then?"

"The reason..." I said. "The reason is...that I feel a tugging sensation in my chest, like it's taking me towards something".

"Maybe we should go back to the hospital" Samuel said, sounding worried now. "Could it be an after-effect of the gas?"

"No, I think I would know" I replied. "Even so, that's why I was told to walk around now. I don't think I'm having a heart attack or anything. It's something...different".

"In what way?"

I was a little embarrassed to tell him. After all, what would he think if he was informed that I felt tethered to a very specific flower in the field beyond us? It wasn't something that had any easy explanations, and he'd probably laugh his head off.

"I feel like...I'm tethered to it. Like there's a rope around my waist that's causing me to go closer and closer to this flower. And it's a very specific flower, too".

I could tell that Samuel was having a tough time suppressing a snicker. "Lucas London, in love with a _flower._ That's just laughable. How can you convince me to take you seriously?"

"I can tell you the exact hexadecimal color of it, too. You know the RGB system?"

"No" the Lucario said.

"Well, the first two digits are the hexadecimal code for red, the next two are green, and the last two are blue. The flower I feel tethered to is clearly visible in my mind". The second I said those words, I knew they were true.

"Well, what color is it?" Samuel asked me.

"It's #854185. That means 133 parts red, 65 parts green, and 133 parts blue. It's Vivid Violet".

The Lucario looked back at me. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but hopefully it does not involve the necklace. If it does...". He didn't need to finish the sentence.

I was sick of all of these shenanigans. I wanted to be a human again, although...without the necklace, chances were I would not have met Samuel. Or had him stay at my house.

 _Well, there's no way that you could know if that was really dependent on the necklace or not. Maybe it was, maybe it was just a coincidence that you found him on the street, stabbed and bleeding like crazy._ That was the rational, logical part of my brain talking. Meanwhile, the emotional part of my brain was still thinking about how good friends the Lucario and I had become.

We took a path out of the village. It wasn't the same one that went up the hill, we were avoiding that area for now in case Kieran was still lying in wait for us. Instead, we were heading in a direction towards one of the flowery fields we had noticed on our way into the valley. My legs trembled from the exertion, but I was determined to see what this was. _What_ was piquing my consciousness so much?

In front of the field was a thick patch of spruce trees. It was so dense that the village could have used it as a wall to defend against an invading army. The fact of the matter was, I had to make it through there somehow.

Samuel and I stopped right in front of the spruce grove. I got the feeling that I should be the only one to go in. Looking back on it, this sounds extremely foolish to even consider the thought, but I was being serious with myself. I didn't know why the flower "wanted" me to see it alone. It was just a stupid flower, after all! Why should I even care about its "feelings"?

"I'm going in alone" I said.

"You're being somewhere in between brazen and reckless, Lucas" my Lucario friend chided me. "You don't know what's back there. You might find that flower, but you might also find something a hell of a lot more dangerous".

I shrugged my broad shoulders. "I guess you're right" I said. "Still, I'm going to do it".

"You're either very brave or very, _very_ stupid, Lucas Leonard London. Still, by all means, do whatever you want. If I end up carrying your corpse out of this copse, that's on you, not on me, and hopefully Arceus is going to send your soul down to the deepest pit of hell".

I chuckled. "Samuel, you're not really serious about that, are you?"

The Lucario shook his head. "I'm not. Go do what you want, but I am not responsible for any injury you may incur. Okay, I _may_ carry your body out to the funeral, but nothing else. You got me?"

I nodded. "Samuel Cranmore, if I lose my life behind these trees, it's on me. I'm going to do this".

Before I could hear him say anything more, I stepped forward and brushed the spruce needles out of my way. I was determined to see what was beyond here at all costs.

At first, I couldn't tell what was going on, or even if _anything_ was going on that wasn't just a part of my imagination. However, it was clear that it wasn't my imagination that I was starting to feel somewhat drowsy.

 _Not again,_ I thought. It wasn't a choking kind of darkness; it felt a little more welcoming. What was causing this?

Soon enough, before I could even figure out what was happening, I fell asleep on my feet.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I allowed Lucas to enter the grove by himself. You might think me irresponsible for doing this, but I trusted him to keep himself safe. Clearly, my trust was not well-placed.

Five minutes after Lucas had gone into the trees, he had still not returned. Really, I wasn't too worried at that point. There was little or no reason to think that he was in too much trouble. It might have been silly to think that a _flower_ was calling for him, but weirder things had happened.

Ten minutes and still nothing. No communication from him had come; in fact, I couldn't even hear Lucas sifting through the flowers, a sound that I would have thought to expect. I supposed maybe I was wrong about that.

Or maybe something _had_ happened to him.

I pushed through the trees, calling for my friend. "Lucas? Lucas? LUCAS! **LUCAS!** ".

No response. I made it to the other side of the grove, and immediately started to feel a little sleepy, like I had just been awake for eighteen to twenty hours. Had Lucas been attacked by a Sleep move? It was possible.

"I don't know who this _Lucas_ is, but there's a Zoroark in here who can't hear you" said a sweet voice.

I looked towards the other side of the field, and the sight that greeted me made it clear what was going on.

A group of Bellossoms were standing in a circle, singing, swinging their grass skirts. In the middle of the circle, lying on the ground, clearly asleep, was a Zoroark. It didn't look too dissimilar to the scene near the end of _Zoroark: Master Of Illusions_ where Zoroark collapses from exhaustion.

One of the Bellossoms came over to me. "Your friend...is the Zoroark it?"

"Yes. I'm friends with _a_ Zoroark. And I think this would be it. Did this person enter your grove about eleven minutes ago?"

The Bellossom nodded. "He was threatening the sacred flower. It doesn't belong to him; it's far too dangerous. We were just defending the territory, so I used my strongest Sleeping move".

I frowned. " _Strongest?_ "

Bellossom, the one standing in front of me, said, "Would you like me to knock you out as well? Because you're sure acting like you want it".

I held up my paws like a person being arrested. "No, no, no. Just tell me when he'll wake up. Hopefully not too long?"

The Bellossom said, "I don't know. An hour? Two? Hard to say. He was already slightly weak, so maybe longer than that. But he _will_ wake up. I'd advise taking him to a real bed. The name's Flora, by the way".

"Thanks. I'm Samuel. Can you help me with carrying him? I might be strong, but this guy weighs a hundred and seventy-five pounds. He's no easy burden, that's for sure".

Flora nodded. "I'll do it, as long as you make us one promise".

I'll do it" I said. "As long as you help me carry Lucas back to the house".

The Bellossom took Lucas's legs. "You take his head" she told me.

I shook my own head. "Considering I suffered a concussion earlier today, I think I can be better trusted to carry his legs".

Flora shrugged. "Whatever you say, bud".

"Did you just call me a _bud_?"

"Yeah" Flora said, giggling. "As in, flower bud. It's what we call people who aren't flowers".

I shrugged. "Whatever. Let's just get this guy into a real bed, so he doesn't feel stiff when he wakes up. Let's go".

Together, we took Lucas's large body, using our hands to make a stretcher of sorts. It sucked that we didn't have an actual stretcher to carry him back on, but this was going to have to do.

"Sorry about that" Flora said.

"It's fine" I replied. "I understand completely. I would've done the same thing. I guess that Bellossom are pretty territorial?"

"Yeah, they are" the Bellossom replied. "There are some who are worse than us; I know a colony that will just use Leaf Blade right away. I don't want to sound dangerous or anything, but your friend got off easy".

We continued carrying Lucas down the hill and back into the village. One thing I was thinking was, _I sure hope this doesn't get us more attention than we already are getting!_

Of course, we could never be that lucky. Several groups of Zorua that were playing hopscotch on one street near us stopped their game in order to gawk at us. We couldn't do anything about it, because I was busy carrying the unconscious Zoroark. I wondered if the villagers were aware that it was Lucas London we were carrying. I figured that there was greater than an even chance that at least one of them knew, or could figure it out.

"It's important to defend that flower" Flora said once again. I hadn't been talking, trying to conserve my air. Even though Fighting types were strong, carrying Lucas was difficult and took up most of my concentration.

"Why?" I asked Flora. I hoped it didn't have anything to do with the necklace, because if it did we could be in a lot of danger.

"I can't tell you that, Samuel. There are some secrets that you are just not privy to. Now, let's get your friend home before we get too much more attention".

I had no problems with that. I pointed out the way back to the Greenlake household, grunting with the effort of carrying Lucas. It was a lot harder than it looked.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we arrived in front of the house. I could tell that it was, since the blue-haired Zoroark was standing on the threshold of the front door. Carla.

"You're back! What happened to Lucas?" she cried.

Flora looked at the female Zoroark. "He stepped into our territory, and we used a Sleeping move on him. He'll wake up within a few hours, but he'll be fine. If he comes back again, Leaf Blade might be necessary".

Carla looked a little surprised. "I'll make sure that he never does it again. Honestly, I'd just thought this was going to be a quick walk!"

"Me too" I said. "But I guess that Lucas had a mind of his own".

I told her all about the mysterious, invisible tether he felt towards that one purple flower, and Carla seemed to be more surprised still. "I would've thought that, after this morning, he would have been wiser about this. Make sure he's more careful in the future".

I nodded at her before Flora and I carried the unconscious Lucas into the house. Going to the bedroom, I saw Malcolm the Zorua, who was still at home.

Great. Just what I needed. An energetic young Zorua, going to bug us more and more about what had happened that day.

"What happened?" Malcolm asked us. "Why is he sleeping?"

"It was nothing!" I said defensively. "He just got a little careless. He's okay".

"Oh" the young Zorua said. "Tell Mom that I'm going out to play with my friends. Is that fine?"

"I will" Flora said, not seeming to even consider it. Of course the young Zorua could go out and play with his friends; this was a non-issue in this village.

We set the sleeping Zoroark on the bed that he had slept in last night; we wanted him to be as comfortable as possible when he woke up. Then, I said good-bye to Flora and decided to wait for Lucas to regain consciousness.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

 _This flower doesn't belong to me._

I supposed that was true. I vaguely remembered the Bellossoms singing a song that sounded kind of like "Surrender" by Billy Talent. Before that, they had been yelling at me, trying to get me off of their ground.

And then, I'd gotten hit with multiple Sleeping moves at once. Not all of them would have worked on their own, but the combined force was enough to bring me down.

I woke up with a pounding headache. Groaning, I raised myself up by the palms of my hands, in order to see where I was. It looked like I was back in my bedroom at the Greenlake household. The brown walls, looking kind of like a furnished log cabin, really did look like what I recognized.

"Hey" I said, trying to speak. My mouth felt very dry.

"Oh. Hello, Lucas" said Samuel, who was sitting next to me. "It's about time you woke up".

"What happened?" I asked. I had a feeling that I already knew, but I wanted to confirm my account of the events with my Lucario friend. Everything seemed somewhat hazy.

"You went into that grove of pine trees, thinking you were going to find that flower. I don't know why you wanted it so much, but the flower was guarded by a group of Bellossoms, which sang you to sleep in order to prevent you from touching their sacred flower, or something".

I laughed. "Probably not one of the smarter things I've done in my 17 years on this planet" I croaked.

"No, it really wasn't, Lucas. From here on out, don't do that again. Don't just do something so rash as to run into a grove that you know practically nothing about, and then try to steal something from the field. I get that you didn't know it was guarded, but that was still so reckless of you".

"Are you thirsty? They said you might be".

"Like you wouldn't believe".

Samuel went over to the sink and filled a cup, putting it on my nightstand. I sat up to drink it, before pulling out the covers from over me.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It's almost dinnertime" replied the Lucario. "That attack was pretty potent".

"No kidding" I said, trying to get up. My legs would barely support my weight at first.

"You're going to be fine, Lucas" Samuel said. "Dinner will be ready in about five minutes. Really, you should try not to get knocked out every time something interesting is about to happen".

I glared at him slightly. "You don't really think this is my fault, do you? I never asked to get tethered to a stupid flower, and then set off a chain of events that led to all of this happening. I never asked for this".

Samuel looked back at me. "Didn't you, though?"

* * *

 **A short chapter, but I couldn't really think of a good reason to follow my original outline, which would have made it probably a good thousand words longer. I would like to thank all of you guys for your support.**

 **Sincerely, SnowLucario.**


	10. Nothing To Lose

**It's been a big week for me. For one, I finally started using Google Docs, since my Interent was wonky on the bus ride. I realize that this may be the best way; don't know why I never did before. Also, tomorrow night is my prom, and I shaved off my peach fuzz for it. My dad made me, and I wouldn't have done it normally. Just want to clear that up.**

 **Also, I've been having a great time on my Discord. PM me and I'll send you an invite code. I used the subreddit for "needafriend" and got a Discord friend as a result. You know who you are. That was pretty awesome. You can even voice chat with me.**

 _Answer: I've been to a lot of places within the U.S.. In addition to all six New England states, I've been to quite a few others, including South Carolina, Arizona (last November), Alaska (last July), and Montana/Wyoming (March before last)._

 _Question: Any more suggestions for questions? You can PM me._

 **You can also PM me with any questions or original characters you may have. Include name, age, personality, and Pokémon partner(s), if any. I'll introduce that character into the story at my earliest convenience.**

 **One last thing: Rocker on (Guest), I would like to know how my writing is inferior to Talkingbirdguy's. I don't mind you saying that, I'd just like to know why you think that. Really, TBG was the reason I started writing. And, by the way, I have the forum up still. SnowLucario Forums, Get Rocker On To Get An Account. It's a thing.**

 **If I had to guess, it might have something to do with humor. I feel that mine focus less on humor than his do. Or maybe I throw my lack of religion into it too . much. Either way, I'd love to know.**

 **With that in mind, enjoy the chapter (the new longest one yet, after Chapter 7, and pretty emotional as well) and don't forget to review!**

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

As I drove home with Samuel the next day, I had a lot of things on my mind. This weekend had given me a lot of things to think about.

For one, I had definitely had a crazier weekend than what I had already been expecting. I had been expecting that I was simply going to learn more about how to use illusions, maybe be able to ward off predators who came after me, be they other Pokémon or mad scientists that were morbidly curious over what had caused me to change into a Zoroark.

I'd passed out twice over the weekend, nearly dying from a Weezing's Poison Gas attack. And I'd seen Samuel get pretty badly hurt as well. Maybe, however, this was only going to increase the bond I felt with the teenager who had turned into a Lucario. Once you've survived through so much together, your bond will only become stronger. That's the way it goes.

In addition, I was thinking about Kieran Mortimer, the mysterious man who had attacked us on top of that hill. What had he been about to tell us? Did this secret of his have anything to do with why he could sense aura? I thought that likely, as I was sure Samuel did. Surely, being a Lucario, Samuel would have understood it more than I did.

Now, I was sitting in the passenger seat, watching the seemingly endless forests pass us by. In only a couple of months, they would be covered in snow. Right now, however, they were as green as they could be, although the first leaves were starting to change color. Samuel occasionally looked to the side of the road as he was driving, looking as though he expected us to be attacked at any minute.

"Are you really expecting us to be attacked?" I eventually asked him, seeing no reason not to come right out and say it.

Samuel shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose I'm somewhat afraid. Who knows how many followers this Kieran Mortimer guy might have? And what would those followers do?"

I chuckled nervously. "We really don't know anything about this guy".

"That's true" my Lucario friend replied. "But we shouldn't care too much about that right now. The fact is, we've got to deal with the problems as they come".

I nodded, agreeing with what he was saying.

For the most part, the rest of the ride home was pretty quiet. It wasn't like we had too many arguments, either. For the most part, we just talked about the good times, as well as the bad times, that we had had in that village of Zoroarks.

Eventually, there was dead silence. By this point, we were only about twenty minutes from my house. I was about to ask Samuel what was up, when he suddenly said, "Really, you were quite foolish to go after that flower".

"We're back to this?" I asked him, feeling slightly irritated. Okay, maybe just a little bit more than _slightly._ I was majorly annoyed with the fact that the Lucario would even have the nerve to bring that up.

"Yes, I just wanted to stress how stupid you were. You didn't really _need_ that flower, you just thought...I don't know. You just thought that the flower was something you wanted. You should put that as a bookmark on the Internet browser that is your brain. _Never trust an invisible tether, particularly if it's taking you towards a flower_ ".

I sighed. It was kind of embarrassing to be chided about it, but it was also kind of embarrassing to have been pulled towards one specific flower. Somehow, I had felt that it held the keys to everything. Everything involved in the mystery. The necklace might have been infused with juices from that flower or something. That would seem to make perfect sense.

Of course, I couldn't jump to such conclusions just yet. I would need to wait and see what was going to happen.

Waking up in the hospital, having lost a battle against Kieran...that was humiliating. Waking up in my own bed in the Greenlakes' home was far worse, because I knew that I had only been hit with those Sleep moves because of my own stupidity, nothing more. There was a big difference between those two sets of circumstances.

"Let's not dwell on it too much longer" I said after a few more minutes. "Let's just get home and let whatever happens, happen. If Kieran comes to our house with a silver hammer, let him. We're going to be ready for it".

"I want to believe that" Samuel said, smiling. "But I just can't".

* * *

Once we got home, we had both made an agreement not to share anything that had happened during our time in Quebec. As much as my mother might have wanted to know, with how nosy she could be at times, that was information we both felt she didn't need. She didn't need to know what it was like up there, or what sort of illusionary moves I had learned.

 _Is "illusionary" even a word? Oh, well- I guess it is now!_

It was hard to laugh as we sat down to a slightly late lunch. The food here sure wasn't as great as it had been at the Greenlake household in the Zoroark habitat, but it didn't taste too bad either. My mother, as much as I might resent her for clearly favoring my sister over me, was still kind enough to make an Oran berry salad that all three of us teenagers had second helpings of.

Neither of us had told my parents that Samuel used to be a human, because, much as with our weekend trip up to Canada, we felt that they didn't need to know that. As I got older and older, I was relying on my parents less and less, and this was one case in which I really did feel that it would hinder me to confide in them.

After lunch, Samuel and I headed up to my room, where we decided to play a few matches of _Super Smash Bros. Brawl,_ one of my favorite video games. It was also, as I learned, one of his.

"I'm going to be Lucario" he said. Really, I wasn't surprised at that, since Samuel _was_ a Lucario, even if he had not been one originally.

"Okay" I said. "I just wish that they had a Zoroark in this game. _That_ would have been something".

"Zoroark hadn't even come out yet, in the games, until after _Brawl_ was released" Samuel said, dropping a logic bomb on me.

"That's fair" I said, selecting Fox McCloud. In any case, Fox was my main, so it shouldn't have been much of a surprise. And I was pretty decent with him, too. I might never be on the level of the professional Smashers who play no items, Fox only, Final Destination, but I could play to save my life...I hoped. I hoped I wouldn't have to.

After turning on the items to low, we had a very enjoyable hour. We played 3-stock matches, and I ended up winning most of them. This could have been due either to actual skill, or the fact that a GameCube controller was easier to use as a Zoroark than as a Lucario.

Once three matches had been played, Michelle came into our room. She had never been that much of a gamer, so I wouldn't think that she would be so interested. However, we were shown to be wrong, because she seemed to be having a good time watching us. Occasionally, she ended up cheering along with the audience when one of us was doing well.

Eventually, we stopped playing, and Samuel and I spent what was left of the afternoon just hanging out and reminiscing over the weekend. There had been so much to talk about...

"Dude, I seriously thought you were a goner back on top of that hill" I said. "Kieran just hit you, and you went _flying_ like Jigglypuff at 182%".

"And I thought you would have been brought down by the full force of all those Sleep moves from that Bellossom group" he replied. "I guess your fur's just pretty strong, it can defend you from stuff like that".

"I literally stepped into that grove, and immediately fell asleep. Just started feeling tired for seemingly no reason, and _bam,_ out cold".

We traded more stories, such as how Samuel had carried me back to the house with the help of a friendly Bellossom named Flora, although he had a lot more to give me, because...

"You really spent a lot of that trip knocked out and helpless" Samuel said. He meant to say it playfully, but I didn't really take it that way. The way I took it was, I had not been able to fend for myself. Which, to be fair, had been the case...due to one stupid decision I had made. I'd be kicking myself for it for quite a while.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up with a new lease on life. I had been through such a crazy weekend that being a Zoroark at school was going to seem normal by comparison.

I got up, stretching out my back. My father had back problems from playing hockey aggressively, and I wasn't keen to follow in his footsteps. I never thought I would be likely to have children, but I would also like to set a better example for them than he was for me, favoring his daughter over his son.

Once again, I supposed it had to do with being a special needs student. The school had to spend more money on me, and I was sure that all of the speech therapy I had done, in order to be able to pronounce certain words and sounds correctly, had sapped some of their savings. You could consider that a sign that they did love me, since they were willing to spend that much money to make me a valuable member of society, but I didn't see it that way.

In any case, it was Monday, and I rarely had a spring in my step on such days. All I wanted to do, normally, was to continue the weekend. Of course, that wasn't the case, but I did have something to look forward to.

Now that I had finally learned how to use illusions, I could see how long I could fool my friends for at school. The possibilities seemed close to limitless. What should I pretend to be?

After a quick breakfast, Samuel and I looked at each other sadly. Both of us knew that we wanted to spend more time together; we had gotten even closer after all of our experiences in Canada. However, this was just not the way the world ran. I had to go to school, and Samuel had to stay at my house.

"I'll miss you today, Sam" I said. "Can I call you Sam? That's just quicker for me".

"Sure, Lucas. And I'll miss you too" he said, hugging me.

I wasn't romantically attracted to Sam, nor was I gay at all. Even so, we had such an intense platonic relationship that it could be considered almost a bromance of sorts. You might make fun of me for being friends with what might be considered a walking, talking stuffed animal, but it was true. I really was friends with Samuel Cranmore.

As soon as I was out of my house, I decided to try my hand at this illusion business. I had had no other chances to practice other than on top of the hill in Quebec. I wanted to know just how capable I was of doing this.

I pictured, in my mind, a small, light brown creature with a cream-colored tail. A foot or so tall, maybe a little larger...yes, that was perfect.

I was taking about eighty percent of my current height out of the picture, but it was pretty weird, because I still felt like I was six feet, two inches tall. That was a big difference from what I had changed into, to be sure.

I looked down at my body. I had turned into an Eevee...or, at least, I _looked_ like I had turned into one. There was a big distinction to make there.

My new body was more nimble, and I wanted to laugh in happiness. That was a problem, because laughing broke the illusion. If I made any sound from my mouth, that was enough to make me appear as a Zoroark once again. Because of this, I had to be careful.

It didn't take me long to make it to school, even in this form. I had made sure to vanish my backpack as well, so that I didn't look like a student. Granted, the orange of my bag was a pretty dull orange, so it might blend in to the fur of an Eevee. Even so, I didn't want to take that chance.

I was in the schoolyard, looking around for Zach. He looked kind of like a stereotypical nerd, with his glasses, slight amount of acne (not that I didn't have any either), and braces that would probably be coming off soon. I wondered what he would think, what it would feel like to have an Eevee running over to you.

Sure enough, I found him, and I began bounding over. I wanted to surprise him, because that would be so hilarious. Would he wet his pants or something? That would be something to see!

Zach was talking to another boy, so I decided to nudge his leg, much like a puppy dog would. Normally, I wasn't this playful, not by a long shot, so I was a little surprised that I wanted to do this. Maybe I just had quite the sense of humor.

Zach looked at me. "Aww, you're such a cute little Eevee!" he said. "What's your name?"

I couldn't say it. If I spoke, the illusion would break, and the joke would be exposed for what it was. And I was having much too much fun for that.

My friend picked me up, and I squealed. This was so amusing to me! Zach had no idea that he was lifting his friend, and he was in for a rude awakening when I…

Wait... _squealed?_

Sure enough, I had made enough noise to transform back. Because Zach Vanderbilt wasn't the strongest guy physically, the added weight of a Zoroark, when compared to an Eevee, was enough to knock him flat onto his back.

"Was that you, Lucas?" he asked, bewildered.

I nodded. "That's me".

"So you learned how to do the illusions over the weekend?"

I nodded again.

"Cool. Let's go inside, and we'll find some other time to talk about it. Right now, however, I think it's best that we go to our first classes. Don't you agree with that?"

I really did agree. As much as I enjoyed thinking about the weekend, and the great times Samuel and I had had together, I needed something else to distract me from the realities of my current life as a Zoroark.

School might indeed be welcome today.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

It was indeed true that I had had a concussion back in Canada. It was also true that Lucas had told me not to come back to his school, not to do battle any more in gym class.

However, I was getting bored. Thoughts about Quebec could really only entertain me for so long, and, at a certain point, I decided that there was really nothing else to it. I wanted to go back to Lucas's school. I wanted to battle.

When Lucas's father had left for work, and his mother was looking away, I got out of the house and began walking towards the school. Once I was out of sight of the London household, I broke into a run. All I wanted to do was to get there, and then we'd have a pretty awesome time battling.

Finally, I reached the school gymnasium. I knew that Lucas had gym first today, as he had told me. Since gym class was mostly battling Pokemon, this was going to be my opportunity.

Once I was in the school, I followed the signs to the gymnasium. Of course, this wasn't a difficult thing for me to do. I'd already been to that room before, and I was more than ready to do it again. I tensed my muscles, preparing for a battle of epic proportions.

Just as the bell rang for what I knew would be Lucas's gym class, I got into the room. I saw a line of what looked like twenty or so teenagers, along with one Zoroark. The gym teacher was still looking at all of us, trying to decide who was going to battle first.

"Sam!" Lucas said angrily, looking at me. "Why did you choose to come here when I _told_ you not to?"

Before I could respond, Mr. Genger, the gym teacher, said, "All right, guys! The first battle will be between Lucas London, the Zoroark, and Samuel Cranmore, the Lucario!"

Both of us looked at each other in shock.

I never thought that I would ever end up having to battle against Lucas. I cared so deeply about him, and my aura could tell that he felt the same way about me.

I knew that neither of us were facing too much risk, though. Mr. Genger would surely step in before any real harm was done to either of us. Even so, it was hard to look at the Zoroark that I had become so attached to, now knowing that I was going to have to face off against him.

"On your mark...get set...GO!" Mr. Genger shouted.

Lucas went first. He stood there, still looking bewildered at what he had been told to do. His large body just stayed limp, even though he was supposed to attack me.

Both of us knew the rules, of course. If one battler stood there for a full minute, not making any moves, they would forfeit the turn. Lucas did seem to be going that route, or, at least, he would be if he dawdled for too much longer.

The gym teacher blew his whistle. "Lucas has taken too long to make his move!" he announced. "Samuel, your turn".

I didn't have nearly as much pause as Lucas did. I had taken my time, while Lucas had been wasting his own time thinking, to come up with a plan. I knew what move I was going to use, and how I was going to use it.

"Aura sphere!" one of the other students said, with a voice full of wonder.

Indeed, I had created an Aura Sphere, a small, dark blue ball of pure aura, and fired it towards Lucas. He was expecting it, however, and he was able to dodge as soon as the Aura Sphere had left my hands.

Lucas used a Night Slash, trying to do whatever possible to do some damage. Clearly, he wanted to make up for his abysmal start to the battle, something I understood. Besides, I knew that he would never hurt me intentionally, just cause enough damage to win this fight.

Still, with the fierce look in his eyes, I had to keep reminding myself of this. That was one thing that was not easy to do, let me tell you. The boy who had transformed into a Zoroark looked _livid._

The Night Slash managed to make a small cut on my "shorts", if you could call them that. A little blood gushed out, but Mr. Genger didn't notice.

Normally, a Pokemon battle would end as soon as blood had been drawn, but that was assuming that the referee was attentive enough to notice, or that he cared. Clearly, Mr. Genger was not both of those things, because he didn't say a word.

The battle continued. I used a Quick Attack, which knocked Lucas off of his feet. I wasn't at a sufficiently high level for a Bone Rush just yet, even though I would have liked to be for this purpose.

 _Or would I?_

I mean, it was _Lucas_ I was battling against. Lucas! The boy I was staying with. The boy I had developed such a close bond with. The boy I was now being forced to battle.

And yet, I didn't want to concede. As I dodged another one of Lucas's attacks, I knew that this was the time to end it. Lucas wouldn't be hurt that much...would he?

"I'm sorry, Lucas" I said, at a level that I figured he would be able to hear, but no one else.

I hit him with another Quick Attack, watching him crumple to the ground. I could tell that he'd been knocked out, completely destroyed.

Well, not _completely._ I saw that a pair of Chansey were carrying him out on a stretcher, so clearly I had hurt him somewhat, but I didn't think he had died. The gym teacher was checking his pulse, and he didn't seem discouraged.

The whole time, I sat on the sidelines, numb at what I had just done.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

My body ached like you wouldn't believe. I felt like I had been kicked everywhere, from my legs, all the way up to my chest. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, not by any stretch of the imagination.

I opened my eyes to find that I was in the school's infirmary, lying in a bed with the sheets underneath me, probably because they wanted to keep an eye on my stomach, which had been bandaged up.

"They don't want the sheets pressing on your stomach" said a voice next to me. "You're going to be fine to go back to class for fourth period, though. The nurse wants you to stay until then".

It was Samuel, and I remembered why I was here, what had happened.

I'd been forced to battle him, and it clearly had not gone very well for me. Had it gone my way, I would not have been in an infirmary bed right about now, so I could assume that it hadn't.

"Why did you come to school?" I asked him angrily. "If you hadn't done it, we wouldn't have had to fight each other, did you think about that?"

"I did" he said plainly. "But I decided that I wanted to be in your company today, just because I did. I like being in your company, Lucas London. I really do".

I sat up, looking around the room more. "Why did you, though? It's not that important for you to come and protect me everywhere! It's not like I'm five years old. No, I'm seventeen, and I don't need your protection. In fact, you're practically in the same situation as me! You're also a Pokemon who used to be a teenager!"

"I guess that's true" Sam said. "But, really, Lucas, you need to let it go. Aren't there other, more important things to worry about. For instance, how are we going to get to the bottom of this necklace business. I don't know about you, but I really would like to figure this out".

I was in the same boat as my Lucario friend. I had never been a fan of mysteries. One could say that had something to do with my Asperger's syndrome; I was into having a routine, of knowing what was going to happen. That can be hard to explain, but I just like knowing what to expect even more than the average person.

Sam stiffened for a moment, looking like a statue at one of the pyramids in Egypt. He really did look like a mummy in that one moment.

"What is it?" I asked him. "Why are you just freezing up like that?"

The Lucario looked at me, wearing an expression I hoped instantly to never see again. He looked like he was picturing the type of flowers he thought I would like best on my coffin, or searching for a diamond on a landmine.

"I don't know" Sam said. "All I do know is that I have a very, very strong sense that something _awful_ is going to happen".

The rest of the school day went by fairly normally. I ate some of the trashy cafeteria food that they always served, trying not to think about what Sam had told me. If not for that, I could believe that it was just another Thursday, in the tired old high school that I was accustomed to attending.

Of course, it wasn't _completely_ normal. Being a Zoroark, for one, was still something I was trying to get used to, although it certainly helped to be able to harness the power of illusion. That had been a very entertaining moment with Zach in the schoolyard, and I hoped to have more of those moments with other people.

The only problem was, how long could that possibly go on until someone recognized me as the teenaged boy who had turned into a Zoroark? That revelation, to someone who had not been expecting it, or one who had been actively looking for that person, would not be in my best interest.

All I had to do was think about Kieran Mortimer, that mysterious young man who had attacked us, and I would be instantly reminded of why I thought that.

I walked home, Sam having left as soon as I had been released from the infirmary. I didn't know exactly how it was going for him, but I was worried about the sense he had had that something bad was going to happen. I didn't know how he could be aware of something in advance, but something about the way he had warned me gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Chances were, something was very, very wrong, because I didn't know Samuel Cranmore to be such a scaredy cat. I told myself that he was, just to comfort myself.

By the time I had reached the street next to my house, I saw Sam running towards me. The Lucario was holding his arms up in the air, looking completely panicked. At the same time, there was pain and anger in his eyes, in approximately equal measures.

"There you are, Lucas!" he cried. "You couldn't have come soon enough!"

Rounding the corner to turn onto my street, I saw that he had been right earlier. And I had never, ever wanted to be more wrong.

My house looked as though there was the world's most insane college frat party going on, or a battle between the Greeks and the Romans. What I mean by that is, half of the figures inside seemed to be breathing orange fumes, while the other half seemed to be breathing purple fumes.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"There seems to be some sort of battle going on!" Sam cried. "There are two armies inside your house, right now".

That was a thought I didn't like to think about. I considered my sister. Hopefully she was safe with her friend Olivia; I loved her a lot. My father would be at work, but my mother might be at home. They didn't care for me too much, they were far from being perfect parents, but they didn't deserve to die this way.

And I had little doubt that, were they in this house, they _would_ die. There was no surviving that combination of fire and poison without immediate medical help.

"Let's get this thing going" I said. "Let's figure out how to save our house, and anyone inside".

Samuel nodded, clearly thinking that this was a good plan. Both of us decided to train our eyes up above, because I had seen a purple shape...what was that?

"Oh. It's _you_ again" Sam grumbled.

Sure enough, sitting on top of the Crobat, gliding through the air, was a face that was all too recognizable. Kieran Mortimer had found our house, and it appeared that he was attacking it.

" _What are you doing here?_ " I yelled at the sky. I really didn't see why Kieran had any business at this house, considering that he had tried to kill both of us, and he didn't even live here!

Which meant he must have been out to get us.

"Simple. I learned that this was the place where a former human lived, and you know me. I'm inquisitive by nature, so this was where I went. I want answers, London".

"What makes you think that you can do that by burning Lucas's house down?" Sam yelled at Kieran.

Kieran laughed sadly. "Someday, young Lucario, you'll understand. Right now, you don't. My army is beating back the fire army that came to defend. Soon, your house is going to be mine".

 _Your house is going to be mine._

I'm sorry, those are seven words that do not sit well in my mind, at least not when they are spoken to me.

"What makes you think this house will be worth anything once it's burned to the ground?" I asked the young man, who was swooping on a downward arc towards us.

"You'd have nothing to lose, Lucas London. You could join me in looking for answers".

I spat onto the ground. "Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Do you think I'm going to do something so idiotic as _that?_ For Arceus's sake, you tried to kill both of us! Do you have such a short memory, or such a weak intellect, that you are seriously going to forget that?"

Kieran crossed his arms. "I knew that I would have a difficult time trying to persuade you. But this is important. The fate of the world could depend on it. The fact of the matter is, I know something you don't".

He said that last sentence, not as a mature and responsible adult, but as a petulant kindergartener who knew where the cookie jar was, but wasn't going to tell anybody else. That was the tone he used, and it made me trust him far less still. I wanted to get out of Kieran's sight as soon as possible.

"What do you know, Kieran?" Sam demanded of him.

Kieran looked back at us. "I'll tell you once you're alone with me. Trust me, we're not going to-".

"I don't _care!_ I _hate_ you!" I yelled, performing a Night Slash towards the aura user.

"Is that any way to treat someone who might hold the key to saving the world?" Kieran said.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. "There's no way you've got the key to saving the world. If anything, I would think you'd be the one trying to _destroy_ it!"

"Trust me", Kieran replied, "I have the best of intentions. It is regrettable that your house is being burned and poisoned as we speak, but it may be all for the better-".

" _All for the better?! Are you out of your mind?_ "

Just then, Michelle came running towards us. "Our house is burning" she said, as if it was something that wasn't completely obvious.

"Can you help us do anything about it?" I asked her irritably. Forgive me for throwing manners to the wind, but I didn't care at the moment. I really didn't.

"Yeah. Olivia has a pet Vulpix named McCloud. I've got him right here in this Pokeball".

Michelle took out a Blue Diamond Pokeball, color approximately #4F2A7A, and threw it on the ground. From it was released a Vulpix, which immediately began prancing towards the house.

"Yes, McCloud! Go destroy the poison armies!"

McCloud the Vulpix ran into the house and instantly started with trying to beat back the purple army. It was like watching a back-and-forth tennis match between the purple team and the orange team. It seemed that the purple team was winning, but only slightly. It was tough to tell from here.

"We need to talk" Michelle said to Kieran. "Let's get up into the air. Can that Crobat carry all of us?"

The last thing I wanted to do was to get on the back of a Pokemon with the devil himself, Kieran Mortimer. Unfortunately, it seemed that this was our only option. Certainly, he wasn't going to give us any answers if we didn't stand down. As much as I hated the man's guts, and would have loved to kick his guts in until he died of internal bleeding, the fact remained.

"It can" Kieran replied. "It's pretty strong".

Crobat came down and unfurled its wings. Much like ramps, the three of us were able to climb onto its back, just like children might in some kind of fairy tale movie.

"We're going to have to have negotiations, now" Kieran said. "Make sure we don't kill each other".

"Huh" I said sarcastically. "The thought had never even crossed my mind until now".

Kieran didn't laugh. "I have information that you guys want. Trust me on this. You want to know the origin of the necklace, the one that has turned Samuel Cranmore and Lucas London into Pokemon. You want to know who created it, why it was created, what we can do in order to help counteract it...I'm your man".

I didn't want to believe it, but Kieran spoke with conviction. Absolute conviction. What were the odds that he was lying?

 _Probably pretty high,_ I thought, _considering how much of an ass he's always been to us._

Still, I wanted to entertain the possibility that he might be telling the truth. The fact was, there was so little we had been able to know over the last week that it would be nice to have some semblance of knowledge. Something to cling to, something we could know was _definitely_ the case.

We flew up to about two hundred feet above the house. I wished that Crobat had safety harnesses, but he didn't. You just had to hang on and hope that you didn't forget what you were doing.

"Do you agree to a quest with me, to help find the truth?" Kieran asked.

"Wait" I said. "This isn't adding up. You tell me that there's a quest we'll have to go on, while at the same time telling me that you already know the answers. These two things seem to be in conflict with one another".

Kieran laughed. "You don't understand, Lucas London. You'll never understand unless you come with me".

Now, he just sounded like a playground bully. "No thanks" I said.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Lucas?" Michelle asked me.

I looked back at her. I was pretty sure that I had not forgotten anything; I had a pretty good memory.

She looked somber when she said, "The thing is, Lucas, we've got nothing to lose".


	11. Bunking With The Devil

**The prom was pretty awesome! I went stag, as did most of the people, and it was still a great time. I prefer going stag, because you're not tethering yourself to another person and, besides, I'm single. I'm not at the stage in my life that I really want a romantic relationship. I never have been the dating type.**

 **In other news, happy Mother's Day. Also, my Discord is going pretty well! I'm always going to allow new people in, so long as I get to know you on this site first. I'll PM you an invite code if you wish. We have had a lot of fun over there, so feel free to ask to join. You will probably not be disappointed.**

 _Answer: Did you PM me to ask any questions? If not, I don't have an answer for you guys._

 _Question: Do you listen to any music while you write? If so, what?_

 **Also, I have made an official goal for this story. I may have said it before, but I hope to reach 100 reviews by the time this is over. I expect the story to be in the 16-20 range in terms of number of chapters, so I'll need more of you to share your thoughts at the bottom of each chapter in order to reach this goal. Even so, I really think we can get there. All you have to do is share your thoughts!**

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

The way things had been going, I was glad I had been let out of school early. At least, I was at the time.

On the third Monday in September, the day that Kieran came, my school dismissed at 12:30. In elementary and middle schools, this was the case every other Monday. Normally, I hung out at Olivia's house on these days. We'd sometimes go out to lunch together, hanging out in town, or just stay at home watching cartoons.

I had never been a big fan of these cartoons, but I still sat there with her, watching some _My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic._ We'd ordered a pizza, and we were sitting there, munching on slices of sausage and mushrooms, stacked on top of mozzerella, sauce, and dough. When it came down to it, that was all pizza was.

I was distracted from these semi-philosophical thoughts by Olivia speaking.

"So...how's your brother doing? The guy who turned into a Zoroark?"

I thought about it. Ever since Lucas had gotten back from Canada, he'd been spending more and more time up in his room with Samuel. Whatever had happened there, it had to have been something that made him think a lot. This was not surprising, since I had always considered him a bit of a nerd, even if he did not see himself as such, but the fact remained that he was an intellectual. He liked to ponder the meanings of things, and I didn't think this would have been an exception.

"I think he's okay" I said. "He's probably got a lot on his plate, with everything that's been going on lately".

Really, that was the honest truth, at least as honest as I could make myself tell.

Suddenly, Olivia took out a Pokeball. It was the color Blue Diamond (#4F2A7A). "What's this?" I asked her.

It wasn't the usual color for a Pokeball. Even though they did sell them in different colors, most of them were just plain red. Literally, #FF0000, the color that is all of the red there can be, but no green or blue.

"This is my pet Vulpix, McCloud" my best friend said. "I have a feeling that you're going to need him. I'll let you borrow McCloud, just for now. Are you okay with doing that? Do you _want_ to do that?"

I pondered this question. I didn't know why Olivia would like me to borrow her Pokemon, even for a little while. It made no sense. I wasn't a trainer, for one. I had no aspirations of becoming one, and, besides, most trainers started at the age of ten. I was already fourteen, so I was a little old to begin.

Even so, I got the feeling that Olivia did have good intentions. There was a chance that McCloud might come in handy later, should I decide to borrow him now. And, as much as I didn't want to deprive my best friend of her Pokemon, I decided that I was going to say yes.

"I'll do it" I said. "I took Pokemon health class last year, I'm taking it again this year. I know how to take care of a Vulpix".

The question was, would a Vulpix be helpful for me? How would I know if I needed McCloud or not? There was no way to.

Stepping out the door a few minutes later, I began heading home. My brother would just be getting out of school right about now. Unlike the elementary and middle schools, Lucas's high school did not get out early every other Monday.

I realized that I looked forward to meeting him. This might be one thing I would actually enjoy today. School, even though it had been a shorter day, had been as boring as ever. In what respect would I need to know all about mathematics during the rest of my life?

However, there was something I cared about far more around the corner. Something that did not put me in a good mood.

Once I got to my street, I saw that there was a great conflagration coming from my house. At least, that was what it looked like. The fire had luckily not spread to the adjoining homes, but my own house was more than likely ruined.

 _Is Lucas in there?_ I thought to myself, panicking inwardly. I didn't know if I wanted to know. You could say that I was afraid of the truth, whatever it would turn out to be.

Inside the house, there were bursts of orange and purple. At first, I had a hard time figuring out what this was likely to be. However, I soon realized that this was exactly what I would expect to see if there was a battle between Fire and Poison types raging within my home.

 _Why_ was my house being used as the venue for a battle between two Pokemon armies? Well, that was anyone's guess.

As soon as I reached the house, I saw Lucas and Samuel, both standing in the driveway. After greeting them quickly, I decided to let McCloud out here. Hopefully, if the Fire types won this battle, my house would not be _that_ destroyed. I sure hoped that the winning side would hold off on damaging the house more than it already was.

A moment later, I saw that the Lucario and Zoroark were not alone here. In addition, there was a gaunt man with shoulder-length white hair on a Crobat about thirty feet in the air.

"We need to talk" I told the man. "Can that Crobat carry all of us?"

"It can" the man said. "It's pretty strong".

The mysterious man flew down to the ground and allowed us to climb onto the back of his Crobat. It was kind of like a ramp, it was that easy to get on.

"We're going to have to have negotiations now. To make sure we don't kill each other" the man said.

Lucas cynically said, "That thought had never even crossed my mind until now".

Really, I wanted all of this to stay relatively civil, particularly as we flew two hundred feet into the air. Our house now looked somewhat like a toy. I wished that we had been wearing safety harnesses, because if we fell, we'd be dead. End of story.

I didn't know what to think about what was going on. Never had I ever imagined that I'd be holding onto a Crobat, hovering 200 feet above my home, which was being destroyed in a battle between Fire and Poison. Which side would come out on top?

I looked over at Lucas, though. It was a big risk, since he was sitting behind me, hanging on for dear life. Despite his tall stature, he was afraid of heights. This was something I was very aware of.

But he was _angry._

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

I couldn't believe that Kieran had the nerve to do what he was doing. He, most likely, was responsible for the raging battle currently being waged inside my house. Not only that, but he seemed to also want me to go on a quest with him. Those things don't go together.

The thing was, Michelle really seemed to want to do it. For the most part, I did get along with my sister rather well. Indeed, probably much more than the majority of brother/sister pairs. Even so, this was one thing that I would not see eye to eye with her.

For one, she hadn't even _met_ Kieran, ever. I had, and it hadn't been pleasant; both of us had almost died. Given that alone, I had little reason to trust the man.

"Hear him out, Lucas" Michelle said again. I barely heard her, however. All I was focusing on was the house down below, slowly being burned and poisoned. Soon, it would no longer be fit to live in, if indeed it still was. Even that was doubtful.

"Why should I?" I asked my younger sister. "You don't know him the way I do. You don't know what he's done, why he's doing what he's doing. I'm sure that he ordered the Poison armies to come here".

"To be fair", said Kieran, "that _is_ true. I wished to collect the necklace, in order to study it more".

"It's gone" Samuel said.

I looked at my Lucario friend. "What do you mean, it's gone? Where did it go?"

"The doctors took it when I was at the hospital after being stabbed" the Lucario replied. "There's no way of knowing where it is, now. Probably it got incinerated".

My eyes widened. "That's dangerous, though! What if one of the doctors transformed into a Zoroark?"

Looking at my claws, I tried to think about just how impossible it would be to start an IV this way. Part of that was no doubt due to the fact that I had no medical training, but I imagined that it would be far harder as a Zoroark even for someone who was trained.

I felt bad for all of the patients who would have to be treated by this doctor. Clearly, he wasn't going to be a big help.

"That's the dangerous part" Samuel said. "There's no way of knowing what will happen to anyone in possession of the necklace. It's been two weeks since then, and Michelle hasn't transformed yet".

My sister felt her body, including running her hands along her legs, as if to make sure that they were normal skin and not fur. Granted, that was probably the exact reason.

"We need to do this, Lucas" she said. "The catch-up work might bite us in the asses later, but right now we have to go with this man. What's your name?"

"Kieran Mortimer" the young man said. "Misery loves company, and I am quite lonely".

"What's that?" Michelle asked. "It doesn't make any sense".

"It's my motto" Kieran replied. "Maybe, sometime, I'll tell you what it means".

We sat there on the Crobat for a while before Kieran said, "So, do you guys want me to call off my forces?"

Samuel glared at him. "Are you kidding me? You could have called them off before they even attacked the Londons' house. Instead, you had to utterly destroy it. To what end?"

Kieran didn't seem to have an answer to that. Of course he didn't. There could be no excuse for what he had done. If his goal had been to try to force us to cooperate, that might have worked, but it certainly wouldn't make me want to go on this quest. Not by a long shot.

Still, I decided that it would be a good idea to see what he had to say. Hopefully, Samuel would be able to tell if he was lying or not, or at least if he had bad intentions. I knew that aura could do that...couldn't it?

"Okay" I said. "If I don't throw you off this Crobat right now, will you tell me the reason you came here? What was your whole thought process?"

Kieran shrugged. "The reason was, I had a dream".

"Never trust dreams" Samuel said. "They rarely mean what you think they do".

"In any case", the young man said, "I dreamed that I was tethered to this house in some way. I don't mean with a _literal_ tether, but it might as well have been, you know what I mean?"

"I do" I said. I didn't want to tell the story to Kieran, because I found it slightly humiliating, and he wasn't going to be the most trustworthy audience for it.

"Lucas here was feeling that same thing towards a specific flower, and this flower happened to be heavily guarded by a group of Bellossom" Samuel said.

"Is this going to end with Lucas being put to sleep?" Kieran asked. "I didn't see that".

"Guys, you're kind of embarrassing me" I said. "I want to go back down, check what damage was done to my home. And I want to lay it all on the line, this is your fault, Kieran Mortimer".

"What good does blaming me do?" the young man asked, throwing his arms in the air. "I wasn't doing anything I thought was wrong".

"Keyword, _thought"_ Samuel said, slugging Kieran in the back of the head.

"Samuel, was that really necessary?" Michelle asked the Lucario.

"Yes" Kieran said. "I mean, no, it wasn't necessary, but you should have known better, Samuel Cranmore. Trust me when I say that you do _not_ want to get on my bad side. Do you understand that?"

Samuel nodded, looking pretty nervous now. I didn't blame him, of course; I would have felt the same way in that same situation. As much as I hated Kieran, as much as I wanted to slap him upside the face until he was spitting up all of his teeth, I knew that this would be unwise. I couldn't just do that and not expect to face any repercussions.

"Can we go down now?" I asked. "I want to survey the damage done to the inside of my house".

"I mean, I'm pretty sure it's toast, but you can do that if you want to" Samuel said.

"You may" Kieran said, pulling Crobat into a nosedive.

"Whoa, nelly!" I exclaimed. It was quite something to be doing a nosedive straight at your house. Luckily, we landed before my neck could snap off from whiplash.

"Go on in and take a look" the young man said, with a smile that told me that I wouldn't like what I saw.

* * *

The house was completely trashed.

I'm not saying that just to make it sound bad, either. The house was destroyed, completely unlivable.

It still smelled strongly of Weezing gas, and I tried not to breathe it in too deeply. This was a problem in and of itself, and I didn't want to endure the same feeling of suffocation that Kieran's Weezing had inflicted upon me. That was an experience I was not keen to relive, thank you very much.

The armies had been called off by Kieran. All it had taken was a whistle, and they had both left. Why he had brought in his Poison type army was anyone's guess. Why a Fire type army had come in to do battle with the Poison types was also anyone's guess.

As I walked through the rubble that had once been my kitchen table, I thought, _Is Mom still alive in here?_

I didn't care for my mother too much. Clearly, she didn't care about me nearly as much as she did Michelle, and that was kind of a deal-breaker for me. After all, isn't part of being a good mother of two not showing favoritism towards one over the other?

The table had been reduced to smithereens, as had most of the cabinets. The acrid stench of burnt marble permeated the place, and there was still smoke in the air. And, lying in the corner of the kitchen, there was something large and charred.

I was going to ignore it. At first, I thought it was just an oddly shaped pile of charcoal. However, when I looked at it more closely, I realized that it was a body. This left only one possibility.

"Mom?"

I knew that she couldn't hear me, but there was no denying that this was her. Normal height, hair parted to both sides, glasses...yes, this looked just like Denise London.

And she was dead.

I couldn't believe it. I felt a few tears welling up, but I forced them back. I was not going to cry over my mother, who hadn't even cared about me that much anyway. Really, it had been all about Michelle from the very beginning of my sister's life.

She hadn't been a perfect person, but she did not deserve to die as she did, trapped inside the house, probably cooking or cleaning up the kitchen, as two opposing armies fought tooth and nail to obliterate each other for seemingly no reason.

I didn't know what to think.

And then, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I heard a knock on the door behind me. Standing in the middle of my ruined kitchen, trying to deal with the muddle of conflicting emotions, that was the last time I wanted to see anybody, least of all…

"Kieran!" I yelled.

The young man held his hands up. "Sorry for giving you the scare, Lucas. I think it's about time that we leave. I have a feeling that I know where we're going to head. Do you still feel that tug?"

At first, I was going to say no. I was still pretty deep in my grief to respond, to be honest. It was hard to convince myself of the fact that I was even _capable_ of feeling the tug.

However, once I focused, once I was actively _looking_ for it, I felt the tug deep within my hairy chest. Somewhere, within my Zoroark body, the harness had been wrapped around my heart, and I was tethered once again to that flower, three hundred miles from here. Was there just something about that flower that was so powerful that it couldn't be tamed? Could I not simply find some other way to work with Kieran in order to find the truth.

Ugh...the very idea of _working with Kieran_ made me want to vomit and tear my great red ponytail off. For all I knew, he was responsible for my very changing into a Zoroark! He could be the cause of this whole thing, and I was considering working with him. I was seriously pondering the idea of bunking with the devil, as some would say.

And yet, I didn't see any other option but to tell the truth. If it _was_ Kieran who had been the driver of this whole mess, I desperately wanted to know. I wanted to give him a swift kick in the ass for it, because he sure as hell deserved it.

"Yes, Kieran. I still feel the tug towards that flower. I even remember the exact hexadecimal code. Is that our target right now?"

Kieran nodded, looking wary. "It is regrettable that your house was burned down. You know, it didn't have to be this way".

I bared my fangs at him. "Are you _shitting me?_ There was _no other way? No other fucking way?_ My mother's dead thanks to your Poison types!"

The man waved his arm to the side. "There really was no other way. I don't have a regular team, but, at least for the moments they are with me, my Pokemon are quite loyal. They'll follow me to the ends of God's Earth. Can the same be said about your friend, Samuel Cranmore?"

I bared my fangs once again. "Samuel would not betray me. Never!"

Kieran cackled. "You might think so, Lucas London, but you can never know. You never can tell what your friends are going to be willing to do when their lives are on the line. It's the most primal of human emotions, the fear of death. Nobody wants to wander the darkness, the unknown on the other side, yet sooner or later we all have to".

For a few seconds, I was almost impressed by Kieran's philosophical talk. However, the implications of it were dire.

Could I really trust Samuel Cranmore, the teenager I had befriended due to being in the same boat as him? We'd both turned into Pokemon, and we were both staring down this mystery. Both of us forced to face Kieran Mortimer head-on.

"Samuel is different" I replied brazenly. "He'll be loyal".

Kieran could only smile sadly. "That's what they all say".

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

Lucas looked visibly distraught as he walked out of the house with Kieran. I had been hesitant to leave him alone in the house with that man, but it had been the only option, the way things were going. After all, Crobat could easily have turned on us, since Kieran's Pokemon seemed to be extremely loyal to him.

Apparently, we were going to be going back up to Quebec. I didn't know what to think about that. Not a day would have passed, now, that we would not have been up in Canada for at least _part_ of the time.

"This time, it'll be easier to find" Kieran said. "We had some navigational issues on the way up on Friday, but I figured out the way. It's pretty much three hundred miles, straight north. It's not that hard to find when you know where to look".

I nodded. The irony was that it had been easier to find on the ground than it had apparently been from the air. However, I didn't really care.

Back then, Kieran and I had been enemies. Now, we were reluctant allies, although this uneasy alliance might just prove to be the real danger. Only time would tell.

"Let's go" Michelle said. "I just want to get into the air. How about you guys?"

Without asking either Lucas or myself, Kieran pulled something out from his jacket pocket. It appeared to be an enormous belt, until I realized that there were four of them.

"Safety harnesses" the man said. "You don't want to be focused on holding on the entire time, you want to enjoy the view. Am I right?"

Kieran clipped them into various points on Crobat's fur before showing us how to tie them around our waists. If we fell off of Crobat, the tether would catch us, and we could be pulled right back up onto the back of the bat.

Once all four of us were buckled in, Kieran ordered his Crobat to fly. And fly we did.

Soon, the destroyed home of the London family looked just like a toy from the sheer height we were at. In one respect, you could think of this as tragic. In another respect, you could see this as good news, that maybe what we had lost was not so great that there was no way we could make up for it.

We flew north, and the air got colder and colder. For the most part, we were only a couple thousand feet in the air, but what you have to remember is that, the later in the day it gets, once you're past a certain point, the colder it gets as well. Not only that, but the wind was directly in our faces. While this might be exhilarating, it was also frigid at times. Even though I had the large blue coat of fur, I would have loved to be wearing a jacket, and maybe ski goggles as well.

At a certain point, we must have passed over the Canadian border, but it was just about impossible to tell where that was. After all, we were several thousand feet in the air, and we had no way of knowing how far or fast we were traveling. For all I knew, we could have passed the village already.

"I think we're getting close" Kieran said from the front of the Crobat.

Looking down, I could tell that he was right, at least when I was paying close enough attention. The log cabins seemed to be present as was usual in the village, and pine trees were all over the place. Even though the sun was starting to sink at this point, it was clear to see the flowery fields, and I could have sworn that I saw a Bellossom down there.

"This is the place?" Michelle asked. "It's _beautiful_ ".

"I know" Lucas replied. "I think I know who we're staying with, too. They are very nice people. Well they're not _people,_ per se, but they're still very hospitable".

It was clear to me that he was talking about the Greenlakes. "Are we staying with the Greenlake family this time?" I asked Kieran.

The young man clearly didn't know who we were talking about. He shrugged his shoulders, and then said, "If you know these people, we're going to stay with them. Just for the night, though. In the morning, we're going to have to get moving again".

"Sounds good" Lucas said. "It's been quite a day".

I had known that Lucas's relationship with his mother had always been a little wanting, but looking at him right now, there was pain in his eyes. Clearly, he hadn't been wishing for his mother to die. I wasn't going to get him to talk about it before he was ready, though. That would just be cruel, and I didn't want to be cruel towards Lucas London.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

We touched down in the village about an hour before sunset. However, it wasn't easy to find the house of Zoroarks that Lucas and Samuel had stayed at over the weekend. We had to have them guide us quite a bit, something that wasn't very easy to do given that most of the houses looked pretty much the same.

The entire time, I was thinking about how Lucas had reacted to seeing me. He really did seem to hate my guts, and he was justified in doing so. After all, I had tried to kill him back on that hill above the village. He had good reason not to trust me.

At the same time, he would need to trust me, something I didn't know that he was capable of. As we walked away from Crobat, I thought about how I could get him to put his faith in me. After all, we needed each other on this quest.

I was convinced that this flower, if Lucas had felt the tug towards it, held the key to what was going on. I knew this even more than I knew that I was terminally ill.

Speaking of which...what would be the right time to tell them what was wrong with me? Certainly, it might make them trust me more. Still, were they ready for that information? Much like Hazel Grace Lancaster from _The Fault In Our Stars,_ I was a ticking time bomb. How long could they stay with me if they knew I was going to be checking out of this world soon? Would they see me as a terminally ill man with nothing to lose, someone who couldn't possibly be trusted for anything?

Samuel was able to lead us to the right place, and he knocked on the door. I didn't know what I was expecting to see on the other side, but soon a blue-haired Zoroark came to the door.

"Is this you again? The people who spent the weekend with us?" the Zoroark, who was clearly a female, asked.

"I'm Samuel Cranmore with Lucas London" the Lucario said. "If your name is Carla Greenlake, we did stay with you, remember?"

"Ah, yes, I am Carla" the blue-haired Zoroark said. "Well, you may spend the night with us once again. Why don't you explain what is happening to us over dinner, because we would like to know why you are here once again, if you do not mind".

"We'll talk about it with you guys inside" I said. "My name's Kieran Mortimer".

"Ah, Kieran...what a nice name" Carla the Zoroark said. "And who might you be, young woman?"

Michelle clearly didn't like being referred to in this manner. "I'm Michelle, and I'm Lucas's sister".

"Very well" Carla said. "Why don't you come inside? We have a lot to talk about".

* * *

 **Enjoy the semi-cliffhanger! I know this is a weird place to put an author's note, but I hope that you liked this chapter nonetheless. I had a good time writing it.**

 **You want a stats check? Okay, I'll give you a stat check.**

 _Reviews: 57_

 _Favorites: 19_

 _Follows: 33_

 _Communities: 3_

 _Views: 3,887_

 **This was not my longest chapter, but I think it was a healthy length. It brings my average up to just about 4,300 words. By the end of the story, I'd like to have the average length be well over four thousand words per chapter, but we will see.**

 **In any case, this has been SnowLucario. I will catch you guys later.**


	12. Treasure Hunt

**Twenty story favorites! This is a great milestone, and I'm pretty proud of it. We're getting up there in terms of popularity, and every view, review, follow, and favorite is like a birthday present several weeks early.**

 **This is the chapter where things really start to heat up. I have a general idea of where this story is going, and I hope that you guys are going to like it.**

 _Answer: I listen to a lot of different types of music when I write. Billy Talent, Little Mix, '80s one-hit wonders, video game soundtracks, mediocre pop songs...I listen to everything. Well, not everything, but you get the idea._

 _Question: How old are you, if that is not considered too personal? If you only want to give a range, that's cool too. I don't need to know your exact date of birth._

 **Finally, one last thing. I have left DeviantArt. With President Trump's ISP law, I decided that, since DA doesn't have "https" in front of it, it was best if I left. Besides, I was using it less and less frequently over the months.**

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

We walked into the house, which looked pretty much exactly as it had the last time we were there. Apparently, no earthquake had struck the area, so there was no destruction done. It still looked as cozy and home-ish as it normally did, with the green carpet on the floor and the normal rocking chairs.

"Please explain what is going on, however" Carla said. "Kieran".

"Me?" the young man asked. "What about me?"

"I want you to explain why you are here" the blue-haired Zoroark said, reiterating her point. She no longer sounded very motherly, now sounding fairly stern. "I'm happy to have you stay the night with us, I'd just like to know what your purpose is".

We headed into the living room, where there was a Zoroark and a Zorua. I knew who these were, because I'd met them before. Jason and Malcolm Greenlake.

Jason was sitting in a rocking chair, relaxing and stretching his large body out. Malcolm was on the floor, playing with what seemed to be a series of Lucario action figures. I thought about asking him what these were, but I knew that we had more important matters to attend to.

"We're on a quest" Kieran said. "Do you remember the flower that Lucas felt tethered to the other day, when he was here?"

"And he got put to sleep by the Bellossoms?" Malcolm asked, raising his paws in the air in a mixture of amusement and intrigue. "That was so funny! And cute".

"Malcolm, you're not helping" I said, trying not to blush. Not that it would have been visible underneath my heavy black fur.

"He's right" Jason said, putting his arm on his son. "That was no laughing matter. That _is_ no laughing matter. If this is about that flower, you'll need to head into that grove again, and this time come out without getting put to sleep. It's not going to be easy!"

"There might be a way, though" his wife said, smiling.

"What is that, Carla?" Michelle asked. I could tell that she didn't buy it without being told precisely _how_ it could be done. And I agreed with my sister. I wanted to know a way that we could enter that grove without instantly risking being attacked. I wanted to know a way that we could find the secret of the flower.

"I know of someone within the village", Carla said, "who can put a blessing on you. The blessing of Insomnia".

"Blessing of Insomnia?" Kieran asked. "That doesn't sound good".

Carla chuckled. "Dear, it won't prevent you from being able to sleep when you need to. This is just so that Sleep moves have no effect on you. You'll be impervious to those moves".

Personally, the idea sounded pretty good to me, but that raised a few questions. How had more people not heard of this?

"Do we really know that this works?" Jason asked. "Really sounds like a con man to me".

"What choice do we have?" I asked. "We can stay here and allow Team Rocket to take over the world using this flower, or whatever might happen, or we can go out and find the real answers to what's going on here. I still want to know why I transformed into a Zoroark. And why Samuel turned into a Lucario".

"Lucas is right" Kieran said. "We'll need to see this person, check to see if he looks fishy. I'm sure that Samuel could check his aura, to see if he was likely to be intentionally deceiving us. That's what we should do".

"All right" Jason said. "I concede that this is our best course of action. Let's eat some dinner, and we can work out some more logistics of this quest. We're going to make it all work out, somehow. But let's eat first".

With that, Jason and Malcolm led us into the dining room, where a brilliant meal had been set up. Miltank steak, as well as fried potatoes and Bonsley leaves, were laid out on the red-and-white tablecloth, the type you would find in a stereotypical Italian restaurant.

We sat down and dug in. It tasted just about as awesome as it looked, and I was glad that Zoroarks could still eat the same food as humans. I noticed, however, that Kieran did not seem to be eating as much as everybody else. Perhaps he wasn't hungry, but it was plain to see, now that he was inside and under the light, just how thin he was.

I saw my sister, who was pretty skinny, and looked at myself, who was slightly stockier in physique. I wondered why Kieran was so thin, though. Why didn't he eat as much as the rest of us?

It wasn't like it mattered to me. At least, if I asked him, that was probably going to be what he would say. But I really did wonder why he didn't eat in order to keep his strength up.

"So", Carla said, "you guys are going to be leaving in the morning?"

"That's the plan" Samuel said, between bites of steak.

"Well", said Jason, "you're going to have to see that man, who at least _says_ he can put the Insomnia blessing on you. Then, you'll find this flower. Hopefully, it will provide you with some answers. I know that you're really looking hard for them".

"You can say that again" Michelle replied.

"Can I go with them?" Malcolm piped up.

All of us looked over at the young Zorua. I wasn't sure exactly how old he was, but he might be a liability if he joined us. Really, it was silly of him to expect that he would even have a chance at it. I didn't think that I wanted him in our group.

"Malcolm, you're only ten years old!" Jason said, slamming his fist on his chest harder than Maxwell's silver hammer. "What makes you think that we would let you go on a quest that is so dangerous?"

"I really want to do something else. I want to see more than just this village!" he cried, sounding like an utter brat. "I want to evolve!"

Carla looked at her husband. "Really, Jason, he's not going to evolve unless he gets some adventuring in. He's still only Level...what level is he?"

"We can get it checked in the village, somewhere" Kieran said. "Maybe the man who will give us the Insomnia blessing can also tell us what level Malcolm is. If so, we'll know how long it is until he evolves. At least, we'll have a good idea".

"I never said you could go, Malcolm" Jason replied.

"I'm fine with it" I said. "The more the merrier. Safety in numbers".

"So am I" Michelle said.

Kieran and Samuel were also okay with it. "If it's okay with all four of you", said Carla, "I don't see why not. But I am going to have to be _very_ clear about some things, guys".

We all tuned in to hear what the female Zoroark would say next. "Yes?" I asked, cutting into another piece of steak. (There were special knives that the Greenlake family, as well as probably the other Zoroarks and Zoruas in the village used, that were made especially for Pokemon. Michelle and Kieran, as humans, were having a little more trouble).

"For one, Kieran, you are going to be the one most responsible for keeping Malcolm safe. He is only ten years old, and this quest is going to be very dangerous. All of you should be willing to do whatever it takes, short of laying down your own lives, to defend him. You got that?"

We nodded. This was a heavy conversation to be having over dinner, for sure.

Kieran looked like he was willing to do anything at this point, though. This was a big change from the man who had commandeered an army of Poison types to help destroy my house. It was _certainly_ a big change from the man who had attacked Samuel and myself on top of the hill near the village.

"I'm up for the challenge, Mrs. Greenlake" he said, putting one last bite of steak in his mouth. "I think we should get ready, though. Malcolm, are you sure you want to do this?"

The Zorua raised his paw in the air. "As sure as I am about anything. I want to help you guys solve the mystery! It's like a huge treasure hunt!"

I frowned. "Yes, I guess it is. But it's a dangerous one, and you don't have to do this. You can go on with your life, and not go on this treasure hunt. Or you can come with us and take some risks".

Jason frowned at me. "Lucas, are you trying to make it sound appealing to him on purpose? Do you want him to die?"

"For the last time, Papa, I'm not going to die!" Malcolm squealed. "And Meema, you too. I'm going to survive this trip".

"You'll make sure of that, right, Kieran?" asked Carla. "If Malcolm dies as a result of your negligence, I will personally use Night Slash on you until you join him".

"Ah, Meema, don't say things like that! For the last time, I'll be _fine!_ "

Kieran, despite "Meema's" threat, didn't seem too fazed by it. He just nodded and said, "I will protect him to the best of my ability".

I decided not to warn the Greenlakes that he had attacked us on Saturday. We didn't need to cause them any unnecessary worry. Indeed, that was the meaning of the word "unnecessary". We just wanted to get this thing over with, find out what was going on with the necklace, and how we could get Samuel and myself back into human form.

"Very well, then" Jason said. "In the morning, you five will embark upon your quest. Good some rest. You're going to need it".

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

I don't remember falling asleep, nor do I remember any dreams. There is, however, one thing that I remember very well.

In the middle of the night, I woke up, feeling terrified. There was no explanation for what was going on. I didn't have much reason to be worried, unless you counted the quest that we were about to be embarking on. Granted, I was worried about that, but there was something far more pressing than that.

No, what I _was_ worried about was the fact that I could not move a muscle.

I'm not talking about being so tired that you feel like you can't get out of bed. That was nothing by comparison.

I was literally paralyzed. I could not do anything except look around, trying to see what was going on with everyone else. Malcolm was sleeping next to Lucas, a Zoroark and Zorua right next to each other. They were in separate beds, though, so it wasn't like they were cuddling with each other. Samuel and Kieran each had their own beds as well, and they were also sleeping peacefully. As far as I could tell, I was the only one awake in the house.

I tried to move my mouth. It would only move to the point that I was able to breathe; otherwise, it stayed right where it was. I couldn't make any noise, not even by moving one finger. There was just no way that I was able to alert anyone else as to what was going on.

According to the clock, it was about one in the morning. Still quite a few more hours until the others would wake up, most likely. I didn't know how much I tossed and turned during the night, so maybe the silence would wake them up.

And, almost just as soon as it had started, it stopped. I was able to move my toes once again, followed by my fingers, arms, and legs. I was no longer paralyzed!

Trying to calm my racing heart, wondering what had just happened, I tried to think about something I had learned in health class at school. Sleep paralysis...that was what it was. Apparently it could be caused by stress, or lack of sleep. One of those I was not short of in the least, and that was stress. Not only that, but grief as well.

My mother had always cared for me more than she had cared for Lucas, for reasons I did not quite understand. However, she still didn't deserve to die that way. If only I had been able to get home sooner. Maybe if I hadn't been hanging out with Olivia…

 _No,_ I chided myself, _don't think that way. There is no control you had over it. Absolutely none._

That was true. I had to remember that there was nothing I could have done, no way I could have stopped my mother from being consumed by those flames.

With that, I tried to get back to sleep, but I eventually accepted that it just wasn't going to happen. I was too hyped up on a adrenaline, too rattled from my experience of sleep paralysis, and too nervous about tomorrow in order to find my way into dream land.

All there was left to do was to watch the sky get slowly, but surely, lighter and lighter. Eventually, the sun would be up, we would eat breakfast, and then we'd be leaving the village behind. Where we were going to go, I didn't know, but there was one thing I did know, and that was that we were going places we had never been before. This was, to paraphrase Malcolm Greenlake, "going to be a big treasure hunt".

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The next morning, as we were eating breakfast, I noticed that Michelle looked more tired than usual, as though she hadn't slept the whole night. I didn't see why she wouldn't have. After all, the beds were pretty awesome, pretty comfortable, and it should not have been a problem in order to get a night of quality sleep on those things.

Then again, I had taken a while to get to sleep myself. I knew that the next day was going to hold some challenges, and it was tough to rest easy with that knowledge.

"So we're going to this man who's going to give us the Insomnia blessing?" I asked Kieran as I cut into a large Oran berry.

"Yes, we are" said Kieran. "His name is Mr. Enfield, and he's going to be more than willing to help us. I think we should go right after breakfast".

These were really awesome berries. You could cut slices out of them the size of slices of watermelon, that was how big they were. Not only that, but they tasted absolutely delectable. Carla Greenlake really was an excellent cook.

"And I'm coming with you guys, right?" Malcolm asked, raising a paw in excitement.

"Yes, you are" I said. "Be sure to behave yourself, because we don't want to make any mistakes".

"Yeah, yeah, I will" the young Zorua replied.

After the meal was over, Carla and Jason took Malcolm into a nearby room in order to have a discussion with him about how he was going to behave on this quest. I figured that it was none of my business to be aware of this.

"He's really quite exuberant, isn't he?" Kieran asked. "I remember the days when I was just like Malcolm...and then I grew up, learned to face the world for what it really is, learned that you need to act in accordance with reality. Especially for me…".

He trailed off, and I had no idea what he was going to say next. Was he showing a little... _vulnerability,_ was that the right word? Given what I knew about Kieran, what I knew _of_ Kieran, there was just no way he was being genuine. He couldn't possibly be as benevolent as he had been letting on lately.

And yet...I did believe him. I was forced to, because I had to trust him. That was the only way this quest was going to work out. I didn't know how much was at stake, but it was always best to be as careful as possible.

Eventually, I was saved from my reverie from Malcolm entering the dining room, clearly with a spring in his step. "Meema and Papa say that I can go! Have you guys packed your bags yet?"

"That won't be a problem" Kieran replied, waving his arm.. "I only ever wear this stuff, and Pokemon don't need to wear clothes at all".

"Are you sure that I won't randomly change back into normal?" I asked. "We don't need to be arrested for...that".

"We can buy some clothes just in case. Except…" Kieran said.

"What is it?" Malcolm asked Kieran. "I just wanna leave!"

"We only have American dollars. No Canadian money. Fu-".

"No swearing in this house!" Carla called from the other room.

"There's a store near us" said Malcolm. "They sell clothes, and they accept American money. I think we should go there, maybe get a backpack. Who will carry it?"

All eyes fell on Samuel. He was probably the strongest out of all of us. Tying my own school backpack to my ponytail, while it had worked, had not been very efficient in terms of weaving in and out of groups of people. Kieran, now that he was close to us, looked quite weak by comparison. He didn't look very healthy for a man of 24, and I could only guess as to what.

"I'll do it" Samuel said. "Let's just go to the store".

We walked out of the house, after saying an emotional good-bye to to Carla and Jason Greenlake. The sun was climbing in the sky, illuminating the various fields of flowers, including the one we intended to head to later. I could tell that the flower was beckoning to me.

 _Could I still feel the tug?_ I decided to test that out, focusing on that flower. I still remembered the exact hexadecimal color code.

Trying not to look weird as we walked along the avenue, I "reached out" to the flower, trying to see if I still felt as though I were harnessed to that flower. It was working, and I was able to imagine the rough blue straps enveloping my lower body, much like when I would go on the ropes course at summer camp.

Okay. I could still feel the flower nearby. Once again, it was a little embarrassing, or shameful rather, to be obsessing over a flower.

I knew that there was a difference between embarrassment and shame. Embarrassment, in order to be experienced, requires you to be around other people when such a thing happens. Shame, on the other hand, can be felt even when there is nobody to witness the shameful act except for yourself. In this case, I was feeling both.

For the most part, I was blindly following Malcolm. Indeed, we all were. The youngest member of our group knew this place far better than any of us, ironically enough.

"We're here!" I heard the young Zorua say after a few minutes.

Looking up, I saw that the store seemed to be a log cabin, much like the rest of the dwellings in the village. What set this one apart from the ordinary homes, however, was that there was a Cerulean sign (#0073B9) that read, POKEMART.

"This is it" Malcolm said, unnecessarily. "Everything you need is in here. Meema even gave me some money".

We entered the Pokemart and saw that it looked like an ordinary grocery store or pharmacy you would find in pretty much any normal small town. There were a few aisles selling backpacks, a few selling Pokeballs, and a few selling potions.

"Let's stock up on some Antidotes" Michelle said. "I get the feeling that we'll need some of those".

"Not for me, though" Samuel replied. "Remember, I'm a Steel type".

"That's true" Kieran replied. "Still, though, for the rest of us, we'll want a safety net in case we get poisoned. Remember, to quote Donald Trump, it's a safety net, not a hammock, that we need".

"I'll find a backpack" Samuel said. "You guys work out what potions we will need. And Malcolm's in charge of the money".

With that, we went out in order to buy our things.

* * *

As it turns out, entrusting all of your money for a shopping trip to a ten-year-old, potentially ADHD Zorua is not the best idea. I wish that I could have put all of the blame on Samuel, but all of us are at least slightly culpable.

Because, when we got to the counter in order to pay for what we had bought, it turned out that we were just a little short on cash. As in, about the amount of two Max Revives.

Could there be something we didn't need? That was the only way this was going to work; we had to downsize.

"Don't need this" Kieran said, tossing a fancy backpack to the side. "We don't need anything too fancy in order to carry what we need; just something that'll do the job. You know, Samuel, you didn't have to choose anything golden".

"Even though it looks awesome?" Malcolm asked, almost bordering on whining.

"For Arceus's sake, Malcolm, _yes_ " Kieran said. "I'm not a father and likely never will be, but I know that you can't just spoil your children all the time. Now, come on. Find a cheaper backpack, and then we can get out of here and to this man who will give us the blessing. It's that simple".

Malcolm went back and delivered the flashy golden backpack back to where he had found it. Then, he selected one that looked far less fancy. It was blue, leathery, and had the logo of a Pokeball on it. Luckily, it seemed fairly sturdy, so it would hopefully hold up.

Hopefully. A word that can mean probably, or maybe, or probably not, depending on the context in which it is used. Not a very reassuring word, at least not to me.

"Let's get this done" I said.

We paid for our purchases and then headed out into the streets of the village. We had only spent about twenty minutes in the store, but it was getting more crowded in the streets already. Many Zorua were running through the streets, playing games of tag or hopscotch. For the most part, we tried not to get too tangled up in what was going on. We just wanted to get to this holy man, of sorts.

"I've always been a skeptic by nature" Samuel said. "I don't really know if we can trust this holy man. Is what he says about being able to give those blessings true? If it's not, I'm going to be pretty pissed off".

"The store is nearby" Malcolm said. "And I know that it works. You'll just have to trust me on this one!"

With that, the young Zorua began bounding off through the village, and we had to follow him as well as possible. It was tough to train my eyes upon Malcolm specifically, but I managed to do it. And Kieran, Samuel, and Michelle were following behind me. Together, we formed a caravan through the dirt roads, only the guy at the front being aware of our destination.

After about five minutes, Malcolm said "We're here!" in a voice that was full of childish excitement, an exuberance that very few ten-year-olds, even, had. Even though he might have been like the annoying little brother I had never had, he was helpful for navigation as long as we were within the Zoroark village.

The place looked like a New Age store, especially one of those you might find in Sedona. All sorts of trinkets, some with Pokemon heads on them, adorned the shelves as well as the windows. I noticed that one item there looked suspiciously like the pendant with the Zoroark head on it.

The pendant that had transformed Samuel and myself.

Malcolm led us into the store and asked the cashier where Mr. Enfield was.

The clerk, whose nametag read ROCKWELL, was a Glaceon. The village was not entirely composed of Lucario, Zoroark, and Zorua, after all. Rockwell appeared to be reading the latest edition of _Battling_ magazine, while humming something that sounded like "I Ran (So Far Away)". He didn't seem to be paying attention to what was going on at all.

"Oh, yeah, Mr. Enfield?" he said, after Malcolm tapped him on the wrist. "What's the password?"

"Insomniac!" Malcolm squealed.

The Glaceon nodded. "You may see Mr. Enfield. What are you here for today?"

"Can I talk, Malcolm?" Kieran asked the young Zorua.

"Sure" Malcolm said.

"We're here to receive the Insomnia blessing" said Kieran.

"Very well, then" Rockwell said, not looking suspicious at all. It was as if people requested to be blessed with Insomnia all the time. Which, granted, was not impossible at all.

Rockwell got up from the desk, continuing to hum '80s music as he led us into a back room.

Sitting on the floor was what the oldest man I had ever seen in my life. One of my grandfathers is 91, but this guy must have been even older than that. He was bald on top, and so wrinkled that it looked like a road map. However, he did have a beard that stretched for about six inches below his chin.

"Are you Mr. Enfield?" I asked. I didn't mean to speak too loudly, just loud and clear enough that this old man would be able to hear me. From what I could see, he wasn't wearing hearing aids or anything of the sort.

"Yes, I am" the man croaked. "And you spoke far too loudly. You see, unlike most men, I have been given a gift by Arceus himself. I have gained a more acute sense of hearing the older I have gotten".

"How old are you?" Malcolm asked.

Samuel looked at him. "You _never_ ask adults how old they are. That's just the number one rule".

Mr. Enfield chuckled. "It's no problem. I'm a hundred and three. But I heard you wanted to be given the Insomnia blessing".

"That is true" Kieran said. "This is what we came for".

"All five of you?" Mr. Enfield asked. "That'll be five hundred dollars, Canadian".

I shared a grimace with Samuel. We had blown all of our money at the store earlier. There was no way we could afford $500 for this.

Kieran put his hand over his heart and dropped to his knees, like a man repenting to God for a grave sin he had just committed. "Mr. Enfield, we have no money. But this is very, _very_ important. If you do not bless us, we will not be able to continue on our quest. We need to get the flower from the grove".

We'd tried it before, and now we needed to try again. Mr. Enfield nodded, before chuckling. "The Zoroark's Flower. Hexadecimal color code #854185. I remember when I looked for it as a young man".

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"Same thing as what I can guess happened to you" the old man said. "I got hit by a full barrage of Sleep moves, took me hours to come to. I want you to stand in a pentagonal formation, all around me".

We did so. Even though Mr. Enfield had not specifically told us to hold hands, all of us formed a chain anyways. I linked myself with Samuel and Malcolm, although myself and Michelle had to kneel in order to meet with Malcolm. Luckily, I'm tall enough that holding Samuel's hand wasn't a problem, although the poor Lucario was forced to bend over significantly. Kieran was pretty much unaffected.

Mr. Enfield was kneeling in the middle, like a Buddhist monk. He said, "I hereby bless all of you with Insomnia. You will still be able to sleep at night, just not be affected by Sleep moves. This will make it easier to complete your quest".

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Maybe this guy really was a crock after all.

But then, I felt something warm in my body. It was the kind of buzz that I could associate with caffeine. I'd only ever had a couple of sips, and I pride myself on being the kind of person who doesn't need coffee to get through the day.

Forget being _injected_ with caffeine. This was like an IV drip of pure caffeine, no way I could stop it. And yet...I didn't feel like I was about to run wild, as well. I became convinced that this was more than just crockery. This could be something real, a blessing that would allow us to enter the Bellossom's grove.

The feeling kept running through my veins, and I was linked to the others through our hands. Looking around the pentagon, I could see that all of the others were also looking like they were receiving a blessing. Kieran, who normally looked pale, gaunt, and weak, looked like he had a lot of energy now. Michelle no longer looked exhausted either.

And then, the feeling stopped, almost as soon as it had started. I knew that we were now invulnerable to Sleep moves; I somehow _knew_ that Mr. Enfield's blessing was going to work.

"Did this work?" asked Michelle.

"Yes. You have been blessed with the power of Insomnia. You will now no longer fall prey to the Bellossom's Sleep moves. You should now go and continue with your quest! The world is waiting for you".

We thanked the old man, and then we bade goodbye to Rockwell. Now, I could have sworn he was humming "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John. I didn't even want to think about why he was into '80s music so much.

"Okay" Kieran said, once we were back in the sunlight. "Where do we go now?"

At this point, some of the Zoruas, as well as the younger Zoroarks who had evolved more recently, were in school already, so the village was less crowded. We were already near the edge of town, but we were on what, if I remembered correctly, was the complete opposite side from where we needed to be in order to reach the grove. It was going to be a long walk, for sure.

The thing was, however, I felt ready for anything. I could have run the distance if I wanted to, and I'm not the athletic type.

"I know where the grove is" Samuel said. "Follow me. Are you guys up for a three-mile jog?"

Energy seemed to be a renewable resource for Malcolm, but I was not quite the same way. However, the blessing of Insomnia really seemed to change things. I found myself running along, keeping up with Samuel and Malcolm. Even Kieran was able to jog, although I could tell that he was having a hard time catching his breath on some occasions.

All I could think about was that we were about to get to the flower. We were about to find out the secret that it possessed. The invisible tether connecting me to it had pulled taut, and I was getting pulled closer and closer in towards the flower.

"Let's do this" I said, pumping my fist in the air.

* * *

Eventually, we reached the grove, still full of energy. I was glad that we had the blessing, because, without it, we would experience more embarrassment than we already had. This was going to be great.

"All right. The color of the flower is #854185, but I'll feel a tug right towards it, so we don't need to keep that in mind too closely" I said.

"How would we tell the exact hexadecimal code of a flower when we don't have a computer nearby?" Kieran all but shouted.

"Good point" I said. "I guess it doesn't matter too much. Let's just get this thing going".

Since I was the one who felt the tether, I was the one who would enter the grove. At first, I was pushing the irritating needles away from myself. It wasn't very comfortable, walking through, but I still had my goal in sight.

"Oh, you again" I heard a voice say.

I looked at a Bellossom, which was the one who had spoken. "I don't know you".

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to sing you to sleep again" the Bellossom said.

I held up my arms. "No, you're not. I have the blessing of Insomnia now. I'm not going to get put to sleep by _you_ ".

"Okay, fine. My name is Flora. The other day, I helped the Lucario carry you out of the grove and back to the Greenlakes' residence. What do you seek here this time?"

I did not hesitate. "The flower. The color is #854185, and I have felt a tug towards it whenever I am within the village. We are on a quest, searching for the truth behind the necklace that transformed me into a Zoroark, as well as my friend, Samuel Cranmore, into a Lucario. I do not wish to fight you".

Flora smiled mischievously. "You can take the flower, but I'm not going to help you find it. You can go and look yourself".

As I began to follow the invisible tether, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the rest of my party enter the grove. They were all wearing in-awe expressions on their faces, showing just how much they thought this grove was gorgeous.

I searched among a patch of #ED7527 flowers, among grass that was the color #81C41C (Tahiti Gold and Lima, respectively). I was still looking for one goal: The specific Vivid Violet flower that had eluded me for three whole days.

"Guys! I think I've found it!" I said, holding up the purple flower.

Kieran, Malcolm, Michelle, and Samuel ran over to me. "That's awesome, Lucas! Let's see what it does!"

I held up the flower, which began to glow a brilliant indigo color. Other Bellossoms came out of hiding, as if they were going to attack us, but it was too late; we had already acquired whatever it had for us, which was…

Nothing?

No, it couldn't be. We'd come all this way, and for there to be _nothing_ out of the ordinary about this flower just didn't sit well with me. There had to be a reason for us to be here. Something, anything.

And then, I felt it. I somehow knew what was going on, although I couldn't articulate it completely. I grasped the flower in my hands, trying not to pass out from the overflow of knowledge into my brain.

None of this can possibly make sense to anyone who has not experienced this before, but I felt like I knew everything. I knew where the location of the necklaces was. I knew where it had been made, I knew everything.

Eventually, my vision turned black, my soul being so overwhelmed by information that my brain could not handle the effort of keeping me conscious.

* * *

 **NEUTRAL POV**

 _Prepare for trouble!_

 _Make it double!_

 _To protect the world with devastation!_

 _To unite all peoples within our nation!_

 _To denounce the evil of truth and love!_

 _To extend our reach to the stars above!_

 _Jessie!_

 _James!_

 _Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!_

 _Surrender now or prepare to fight!_

 _Meowth. That's right!_

Team Rocket had said those words many times before, but they felt a certain satisfaction now, a certain feeling that things were actually going to be going right this time.

A pink-haired young woman stood next to a blue-haired young man, about to enter the grove. Team Rocket had one mission, and one mission only: To capture the Flower Of Enlightenment.

This flower, according to their intelligence, came from one place, and one place only: A grove nearby to a Zoroark village in Quebec. Team Rocket had made their way there, careful not to be caught by the authorities.

Now, they stood in front of a grove, ready to get in and get it done. There was no telling what the flower was, or what it did, but one thing was clear: If Team Rocket wanted to get to the bottom of this, they were going to need to capture the boy who had turned into a Zoroark. Take him to the lab, figure out exactly what was going on with him, and then, when he had exhausted his purpose, kill him.

Mr. Enfield, that foolish old man back in the New Age store, had given them the blessing of Insomnia. They would be able to enter this clearing, with all of its Bellossom, and still come out awake. The needle was ready; Jessie was carrying it. The plan was to inject the Zoroark with the tranquilizer, and then they would drag him into their van, where they would drive to headquarters. There, they would perform the examinations.

This was going to be epic...

* * *

 **Yes, I gave you guys a cliffhanger! Normally I wouldn't put an author's note at the end like this after a cliffhanger, but now I just want to say two things. One is that I'm hoping Thomas Westbrook of Holy Koolaid will read this. He inspired the scene with Michelle getting sleep paralysis, and I'll make sure to send him a link. I feel unique in being one of the few (from my perspective) openly atheist fanfiction authors. He does a lot of great work on that channel, and I made sure to let him know that he inspired it.**

 **The other thing is, when Kieran says that Donald Trump said that they needed a safety net, and not a hammock, this is a reference to a book I happen to own entitled "Time To Get Tough" written by Donald J. Trump. In case you're interested, I bought it during the Republican primaries. One of his chapters, the one about welfare, is titled as such. I figured this was a good parallel to draw.**

 **Finally (I promise), this was the longest chapter in the story by a decent amount. As such, with everything listed above, I really want you guys to review and tell me what you think. Even if it's critical, I want to know honestly. Also, I just barely managed to push the average chapter length of this story over 4,500 words, so that's another milestone I have passed.**

 **With that, I'm out of here. Remember to rate, review, and eagerly wait for the next chapter!**


	13. T Minus One

**Happy weekend! We went from dreary, 50s weather to 80s and 90s and dry. It's been very hot for May, especially up here. This is a short chapter, mainly because it is for the purposes of transitioning the story. I know that I'll try to make the next one much longer than this.**

 **I actually finished this on Thursday afternoon, but haven't posted it until Friday night. In keeping with a recommendation I received from Insomniac98338, I will be posting these every four days from here on out, regardless of my writing speed. An exception, of course, being if I am too slow in writing to get a chapter out in time. And, for all of my transition chapters, this is not the shortest one I have written, so I hope you enjoy and review. Remember, the goal is 100!**

 _Answer: I am 16, soon to be 17. Soon, it'll only be four years until I can purchase alcohol! Not that I really want to do that._

 _Question: What is your favorite Pokémon out of all of them? Any generation._

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

Weird.

In spite of the Insomnia blessing, we had still been able to pass out as a result of the flower. At least it did confirm one thing I had suspected, which was that the flower did have some powers. Why else would I have felt that inexplicable tether towards it?

The next thing I knew after passing out was that my head hurt more than it ever had in my life. Like, it wasn't flu level. It was meningitis level, it was that bad. I was sprawled on the ground, clutching the Vivid Violet flower in my claw. After I opened my eyes, I was able to see more of my surroundings, and the bright color made things five times worse.

I was still in the middle of the grove of spruce trees. Around me, Kieran, Malcolm, Michelle, and Samuel were also coming to, rubbing their heads in what was no doubt pain.

" _Worst...hangover...ever_ " Kieran groaned, trying to stand up. This was a bad idea, as he soon ended up falling back down on his rump. At this, Malcolm couldn't suppress a giggle, even though his head had to be killing him as well.

"No kidding" Michelle said. "Of course, I've never been one to drink, so I wouldn't really know that, but whatever".

I sat down, crossing my legs like a monk, trying to regain my bearings. The sun had moved up to the point where it was nearing midday. For the most part, my head felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and the sun felt like it was beating into my skull. This, despite the fact that it couldn't have been more than sixty degrees out.

"Did you hear that?" Samuel asked, sounding worried.

The rest of us shook our aching heads. Lucario had extremely good senses of sound, so it wasn't that big of a surprise that Samuel was the only one who could hear something.

And then, I saw it. I saw that there was a rustle in the spruce needles, something that might be coming towards us.

"There is...malevolence in those trees" the Lucario said. "We're going to have to be careful. Let's get out of here while we still have the chance!"

That was one thing I couldn't argue with. I didn't particularly want to stay here if there was someone potentially dangerous about to enter. And yet, I didn't feel particularly capable of movement, either. I was in too much pain to even think about running for the hills, quite literally.

I stood up and almost immediately felt dizzy. I put my hand to my head, but that only increased the headache. I had to keep on going, running. However, I found myself twirling, almost like a ballerina, as I tried to get away from the entrance to the grove.

"Team Rocket!" Malcolm cried.

"That's right!" said a cocky female voice.

From out of the trees came a young woman with long, pink hair, and a young man with slightly shorter, electric indigo hair. Both of them had smirks on their faces, as well as two Pokeballs, ready to capture someone.

In spite of my attempts at bravado, it wasn't easy to be brave. Team Rocket was a name that struck fear into the hearts of Pokemon and their owners. Their goal was to capture as many rare Pokemon as possible, in order to conduct research on them, and occasionally torture and/or kill them. You didn't want to get caught by Team Rocket, that was for sure.

Jessie, the pink-haired young woman, said, "Ooh! Is this the boy who turned into a Zoroark? Foolish to be in such a public place!"

Samuel stood tall, swaying slightly. "If I were you, I wouldn't enter the grove. If you do, you'll be sleeping the sleep of the fairies within seconds. The Bellossom aren't going to be happy!"

A few hundred feet away, there was a circle of Bellossoms, dancing like native Hawaiians at a luau. They seemed to be singing "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper, trying to put those near them to sleep.

James, the man, laughed. "Do you really think we'd be so stupid as to enter without the Insomnia blessing? We're going to be fine. You're the stupid ones. Surrender the boy or prepare to die".

Such a cliche statement did have an effect on me. For whatever reason, I got a feeling that _the boy_ wasn't Kieran or Malcolm.

"Which boy?" Michelle asked, trying to sound confident, despite the fear that was no doubt radiating from her into Samuel in waves. She stood her ground, managing to stay firmly planted on her feet, not moving in the least.

"Lucas London" James said. "The one who turned into a Zoroark!"

"There _must_ be a scientific explanation for it!" Jessie yelled. "Imagine the implications for research. We're going to be rich and famous!"

I dug my nails and ground my teeth, still stuck on the ground, although my headache was starting to abate. "Honestly, fucking criminal organizations aren't going to get recognized by the government as heroes any time soon. You might as well just give up".

Jessie cackled. "Do you _really_ think so, London? Are you so deluded to even entertain the thought that we would just stop pursuing our number one goal? Noooo, we're going to get this done!"

James held out his Pokeball. "Meowth, exit!"

Meowth exited the Pokeball, looking around. Then, he stuck out his arm towards us. "You guys are going _down!"_

Kieran snorted. "Not on my watch. Guys, run! I'll hold them off! I've got nothing to lose, anyway".

"What do you mean, nothing to lose?" Michelle yelled. "If you get killed, you lose the rest of your life, just the same as the rest of us!"

I didn't know what Kieran meant either, but now wasn't the time to ask. Our number one goal was to get away from Team Rocket. After that, we didn't know what.

At a certain point, I just snapped. I leapt to my feet, not able to continue staying there any longer. There was no reason not to fight back. At least, that was what I thought at the time. Looking back on it, however, I could not have made a worse move, because I was right next to their Pokeballs. I had to tread carefully.

"Lucas! Are you an idiot?" Michelle shrieked.

Maybe I was, but I was a _strong_ idiot. I climbed onto Jessie and began tackling her to the ground, slapping her across the face.

"Why are you hitting a _woman?"_ the young woman scolded me.

I hit her again before saying, "You barely qualify for that description! It's only because you aren't male that you are female!"

"Enough insolence!" James said, grabbing the other Pokeball from Jessie's hand, the one that had not held Meowth. "I will capture you, Lucas London!"

"Remember...the tranquilizer…" Jessie said, sounding like she was choking. I let my grip loosen slightly, but I made sure to run my claws across her arm, trying to cause as much pain as possible without doing too much permanent damage. If I just killed her, I would be no better than her. My late mother, as much as I didn't agree with everything she had done, had at least taught me that much.

Suddenly, I felt a jab in my right arm. It hurt pretty badly, worse than a normal injection. I saw that it was a bigger needle than the type you usually see at a doctor's office, but this was far different.

My vision immediately started darkening as soon as the blue liquid had entered my arm. I had finally thought that I'd be heading into the grove without passing out...but evidently not.

"Lucas!" I heard Michelle yell, and she started running over to me.

The last thing I felt, before passing out for the fourth time in as many days, was her throwing herself over me, and I knew that I would be at the mercy of Team Rocket, a group that would no doubt use and abuse me for their own ends.

 **(Insert a horizontal line here)**

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

Everything seemed to happen so fast. It wasn't enough that we had gotten into the grove safely, found the flower, and then all mysteriously passed out. And woken up with headaches rivalling an extreme hangover.

 _Then,_ Team Rocket had to come, and all of this happened. There was a brief battle, but it didn't last long enough for us to escape. And Lucas was jabbed with the tranquilizer drug.

Michelle ran over to her fallen brother, but none of the rest of us were so brave. I personally was sure that Jessie and James would have brought more than one syringe with them, so that they could knock all of us out and cart us to their base, wherever that was.

"Lucas?" Michelle was asking her brother.

It didn't really matter what she said, though. Lucas London was clearly not going to wake up anytime soon. They seemed to be about to take him away, as evidenced by the way James grabbed the front of his muzzle.

"We're going to the base" James grunted. "Man, this guy is _heavy._ Is that fur made of steel?"

"I'm pretty sure it isn't" Meowth said, grabbing his tail. "Come on, guys. Let's haul ass out of here!"

Before Malcolm or Kieran could do anything to try and stop them (which would more than likely result in their own capture), the two males of Team Rocket were beginning to haul Lucas out of the grove. I knew immediately that no one in the village would try to stop them. Everyone was far too afraid of Team Rocket to do that.

I felt heartsick whenever I thought of what the Greenlakes would think, seeing Lucas carried away by a trio as cruel as Jessie, James, and Meowth. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Well, maybe I _would,_ but that depends on the situation.

Right now, our worst enemies were Team Rocket. Them, I wouldn't mind getting a taste of their own medicine.

* * *

As soon as we were confident that the Team Rocket trio were out of earshot, we started heading out of the grove. Even though we now had the blessing of Insomnia, we didn't want to stay there for a minute longer than we needed to. Particularly considering the Bellossoms hadn't even lifted any of their fingers in order to help; they'd simply let us deal with the villainous team on our own.

"Let's go back to the Greenlake house" Kieran said. "They have Internet access, and we can figure out where the base is of the nearest branch of Team Rocket. That's probably where Lucas is being held".

"Who put you in charge?" Michelle asked. "I mean, you _killed_ my mother. I would say that this is reason not to trust you".

"You need me right now" the young man said. "Later, I'll tell you guys what's going on with me, and why I say I have nothing to lose. Now, though, we need to get moving. There's nothing that will help us about dilly-dallying. Lucas's life could be at stake".

I knew that he was right. Still, it kind of stung to be reminded of our absolute dependence on the man we had considered, only recently, to be our worst enemy. Excuse me, but that is not something that is easy for me to let go.

We headed back into the village, but Team Rocket seemed to be moving, quite literally, like rockets. We didn't see hide or hair of them the entire way back to the Greenlake household.

"Man, my parents are going to be pissed" Malcolm said, sounding childish as always. "Really, wait till they see that we weren't able to defend _Lucas._ I'm going to get grounded for the rest of my life".

"No, you're not" I told the Zorua. "They're not going to ground you for something like this. It's going to be fine. We'll just have to rescue Lucas, and everything is going to be all right".

What I didn't mention was that we had no idea where Lucas was being taken, other than having an inkling that it might be Team Rocket's nearest base. Other than that, there was little reason for optimism.

We finally arrived back at the house, and Malcolm rang the doorbell. We had to wait for a few seconds until Carla arrived at the door. When she did, she looked shocked.

"What happened?" she asked. "I didn't expect you guys to be back here until you were done with your quest!"

"You see", Kieran said, "something happened".

"What might that be?" Carla asked us.

"Did you see Team Rocket in the street just a few minutes ago? Because they were carrying Lucas out of here. They managed to capture him, and the flower". I was only now realizing that they did indeed have the flower as well, but I knew it was true all the same. There was no way that they would have left without something Lucas had been clutching as he lost consciousness.

"That's bad news" the female Zoroark said. "But I'll let you guys in, anyway. Sounds like you will need to do some research, figure out where Team Rocket's base is".

I could tell just how shocked Carla looked as she got ready to go out and get food for lunch. She also looked livid, however, that we had let that happen to Lucas. I wished that we could have pointed out that it wasn't our fault, but that might not have done anything. All we could do was try to rectify the situation now, get on the computer and start looking.

 **(Insert a horizontal line here)**

 **LUCAS'S POV**

Pain...that was all I registered at first. And, really, it was no surprise. I'd just passed out for the fourth time in as many days, and this had been as a result of a tranquilizer. It was no wonder that my head would be killing me.

I tried to open my eyes. No dice. They felt like red-hot pokers were being used to hold them shut. I knew that this wasn't normal; _something had to be going on._

And then I remembered. I had been kidnapped by Team Rocket, and was probably going to be used for some sort of evil purpose. None of the possibilities were good; all I knew was that I was up a creek without a paddle, for sure.

Finally, I managed to see. I was shackled to the wall, with both hand and leg irons. The irons were connected to a bar that went from the bed to an adjoining bathroom. The bar also went, in the other direction, to the door.

Which was mighty convenient.

I tried to move towards the door. I was able to get off the bed, barely able to walk due to the pain in my skull, moving my chains along the wall. Once again, I tried to act just like this was a ropes course at summer camp. It was that simple. Just at summer camp.

Yeah, keep acting like that, Lucas. Doesn't change the fact that the door's locked.

Indeed, it was. As much as I tugged on it, using all of my limited physical strength, it didn't budge. I was trapped in here.

I surveyed my surroundings once more. Aside from the bed, the bathroom, and the door, as well as the chains and bar, there was nothing else of note in the room. There was no window, so I had no idea where I was or for how long I had been out. All I could hear was what sounded like ocean waves lapping against a rocky shore.

Indeed, the room was so dark that I could have been underwater. The only thing to illuminate it was a dirty light on the ceiling. I had no way of turning it off, which was a shame, because all I wanted to do at the moment was sleep; I was in that much pain.

There was the sound of a lock clicking, and then the door opened. I craned my neck in order to see who it was, which only served to exacerbate my headache.

A young man, not James, was standing in front of me. Probably in his late twenties, he wore a black shirt with a red letter R on it, the symbol of Team Rocket. He also held a gun, although he wasn't pointing it at me. I had no doubt that he was more than willing to use it if I stepped out of line.

"Good evening, Lucas London" he sneered. I had already decided that I didn't like him, but this made me _really_ not like him.

"I think you might be asking why you are here" the young man said. "Would you like to know that?"

"Yes" I croaked. I couldn't muster the strength to insert some choice words, because that would just take too much energy.

I had a good feeling as to why I was here; I was just waiting for this man to confirm it.

"Okay, Lucas. You are here because you transformed into a Zoroark. When we don't have a scientific explanation for something, we're not okay with just rolling with it, we want to learn more. As a result, you are going to be put through some experiments tomorrow".

My heart froze up. I had had a feeling that this would be coming, but I wasn't expecting it to be at the hands of Team Rocket. As far as I knew, Team Rocket didn't have the necklace, so they wouldn't find the answers they were looking for. They would keep on using and abusing me until I was just a husk of what Lucas Leonard London had once been. Until I was dead.

The thought was sickening in more ways than one. On one hand, I didn't want to die at the ripe old age of seventeen. On the other hand, Team Rocket's seeming indifference to suffering that they were the ones to cause was absolutely nauseating.

"Fuck you guys" I said, weakly.

The man only laughed. "Trust me, you'll be regretting that statement soon enough. Right now, you can just sit here until morning, when you'll be subjected to a few tests. We're going to make sure that you are healthy enough to undergo these experiments".

I nodded, which was a mistake. "Can I have some Tylenol or something? My head is _killing_ me".

The Team Rocket operative laughed once again. "It doesn't work that way, Lucas London. You'll just have to endure it. Now, I think I will be going".

The man left, walking out the door, and shut it behind him. Once again, I was alone.

And I had been so _stupid!_ Because, if I had only managed to keep myself from charging at Jessie and James, I would not have gotten injected with the tranquilizer, would not have been kidnapped, and most certainly would not have been in the situation that I was in now.

All I could hope for was that my friends were going to find out where I was. Which was a long shot because _I_ didn't even know where I was, so why would my friends be able to figure it out?

No, that thought was far too optimistic. I was probably just going to die in this room, and it was going to be as simple as that. I wouldn't be buried near my mother, I would be buried somewhere in this building. That thought was not a pleasant one.

Right now, however, my head was pounding far too much to think straight. I stood back up, my head spinning with pain. It was weird, feeling lightheaded, while at the same time your head felt like it was weighing down the rest of your body.

I managed to collapse into the bed, which didn't have any blankets. Despite this, I didn't need one in order to fall asleep.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

We had sat down at the Greenlakes' computer, working on it for an hour, trying to research where Lucas was likely to be. It wasn't as hard as you might think, believe it or not. The reason for this is because we had a good idea to look for him at wherever the nearby Team Rocket base was.

As soon as we had figured that out, we had notified Carla and Jason that we'd be heading to a small town called Rocket, Maine. It was located on the Knox County coast, rough terrain to try to sail around. What a fitting place to have headquarters for Team Rocket!

Kieran called a Crobat, which still seemed to be very loyal to him for some reason. I wasn't sure exactly _why_ all of the Poison types liked him so much, but it could have been because of his personality. Certainly a lot of people would have considered his personality _poisonous;_ that wasn't too outlandish of a description of Kieran Mortimer. Still, however, I didn't know, and I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

We touched down outside the Rocket Pokemon Center. Pokemon Centers are basically crosses between hostels and hospitals, where injured Pokemon can recover, and their trainers can stay and order food. For the most part, they are located near cities and small towns, but there are some in the middle of nowhere.

"Shall we get ready to just storm in and expect to find Lucas?" I asked. "It's not like Team Rocket isn't going to have any defenses on their main base in Maine".

"I'll fix that problem" said a voice from the door.


	14. Caffeine And Comrades

**As you can see, we have a new cover photo! I got it from Jirulius in the That Universe Discord chat, which is awesome. Covers like these are typically used in TU stories, so that's why he recommended this one for me.**

 **In addition, my own Discord now has 8 members! If you wish to join, send a PM to me, Cosmicsafe74, or record45, and I/he/she will give you the code. At least, I will. I have a mic, so I can do voice chat as well.**

 _Answer: It's Lucario, with Zoroark a distant second, and nobody else even close. But I'm sure you guys already knew that._

 _Question: What is, in your opinion, the most underrated band there is?_

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

The man who walked into the room was slightly taller than average, with short, black hair and green eyes. Nobody else (besides Kieran) seemed to know who he was, but he needed to give me no introduction; I was more than aware of who this person was. I'd seen him before, after all.

"Eric!" I exclaimed. "How did you find us?"

Eric Owsley shrugged. "I used Mesprit to help me figure out the way. It really wasn't that hard".

"Wait, so who is this chap?" Malcolm asked, bouncing on the bed like a little kid. I found it a little annoying that he was playing at being British, particularly when we had to deal with the fact that Lucas London had been kidnapped. We could do with a little less humor, I thought. Also, a little less energy, a little more actually getting things done.

"I helped teach Lucas how to use his illusions" Eric replied. "My name is Eric Owsley, and I am thirty-four years old. I've got a team of Pokemon that are going to help us save him from Team Rocket".

"But we don't know for sure where he's being held!" Michelle all but shrieked. "And, really, we have no way to know for sure, and no reason to trust you. How do we know that you really helped Lucas with the illusions?"

Luckily enough, I happened to know a way to make sure Michelle and Malcolm trusted this man. It rarely failed, but it could on occasion if we were surrounded by many other auras. In that case, it would be like trying to focus on a single instrument when an enormous symphony orchestra was playing. If that wasn't damn near impossible, it was at least pretty hard.

I looked into Eric's aura. I saw that he meant what he said, and he said what he meant. It seemed that it was a safe bet that trusting him was going to be in our best interest.

"We should trust him" I said. "Trust me, I know him".

Kieran shot me a look, which was a grim smile. "He's not going to help us. Not after I attacked you and Lucas up on that hill".

"Maybe he won't help _you_ " I said, pointing my paw at Kieran, "but he might help the rest of us, even if it does mean helping you".

"Samuel is correct" the man replied, smiling. "Just because you might have attacked us, Kieran Mortimer, does not mean that I am not willing to help the others in the group. As long as you do not intend to attack us, then I will count that as a win. You are okay to have in our group in that case".

Kieran nodded. "So...why are you here?"

"Simple" Eric stated, snapping his fingers as though it were a self-evident fact. "I'm here to help you guys. I don't want Lucas London to be left to the mercy, or lack thereof, of Team Rocket. I'm sure that, even now, they are not showing him any mercy. That's just not Team Rocket's style, you know?"

I supposed that I could be fairly confident of that. Whatever else you could say about Team Rocket, they sure didn't pull any punches. There was a chance Lucas could be dead by now, but I didn't want to entertain that thought. For one, it was likely that they would want to perform more experiments on him than they already had. In addition, they just liked to torture Pokemon for their own entertainment. That was some seriously evil stuff.

"So...do you guys wanna order some food for dinner?" Malcolm asked. "I know Meema wouldn't let me eat too much sugar, but can we _please_ get a giant strawberry shortcake with ice cream on top? Please?"

Eric laughed. "Malcolm, your stomach might be a bottomless pit, but ours aren't. We're going to have to eat fairly healthily tonight, in order to be able to train tomorrow".

"Wait" I said. "We _won't_ rescue Lucas tomorrow?"

"You need to become acquainted with my team more first" the man replied. "Learn how to battle using them. I have five Pokemon".

"Which ones?" Kieran asked.

"They are a Haunter, a Golem, a Beautifly, a Mesprit, and a Zubat" he said. "I think that all of them could come in very handy".

"Wait...you have a _Mesprit?"_ Michelle asked. "That's a Legendary! You don't just _get_ Legendaries that way!"

"That is true" Eric said. "It is normally very difficult to find a Legendary. However, if you know the right people, it becomes far less difficult".

That was a bit of an ominous statement. Reading his aura, I knew that he had nothing but the best of his intentions, but if he was trying to make us trust him, he sure wasn't doing a very good job of it. It was hard to trust someone who just casually tossed out information like having a Legendary Pokemon, and then didn't tell you how he had acquired it.

Still, though, we had to trust Eric. He probably was our only option, and our best chance at being able to get Lucas back.

"So...what _do_ you want to get for dinner?" Eric asked. "They have a lot of food at this Pokemon center".

After we told Eric our orders, he went down to the kitchen part of the center to make sure that it was being made the way we wanted it.

"He's really being helpful, isn't he?" Michelle asked.

I nodded. Eric Owsley was being almost _suspiciously_ helpful. I knew that he didn't have any ulterior motives, but it was still a little unsettling to be living with so much uncertainty, and now find a person who was so kind. That did not just _happen._

Our food came, and it was pretty good. It definitely tasted better than the cafeteria food at the high school I used to attend, and probably better than that at Lucas's school as well. I was glad that Eric wouldn't let me order chocolate, because Lucario become addicted to the stuff very easily, for whatever reason.

In spite of what Malcolm had demanded, we did not get strawberry shortcake; we didn't need the exuberant Zorua to become even more hyper than he already was. We all needed our sleep, and there was no way that he would be conducive to that for us. I feel horrible for saying this, but it's true.

Even after we were done eating, we stayed up two hours later that night, discussing plans to save Lucas from Team Rocket. Everything had to go perfectly or close to it, because there was no doubt that the villainous team would have put up many strong lines of defense against intruders.

Overall, I could tell that all of us were nervous. We only had two more nights until we would be in the do-or-die situation. Lucas's was the only life at risk right now, but that could change if something went wrong on our mission. I tried not to think that way, however. I wanted to be as optimistic as possible.

And, as I finally got in my bed in the Pokemon center in order to go to sleep, I had the feeling that it was all going to be okay. We just couldn't fuck it up.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

Seriously, Arceus. Waking up with a blinder of a headache was becoming sort of a pattern for me. Was this some kind of cosmic joke, or just a coincidence? Either way, I was sick of it.

Examining my surroundings, I saw that I was still locked in the room and chained to the wall. I could only move my arms and legs the amount that my irons would allow me to, which is to say not very much at all. In addition, the chains were starting to chafe around my ankles and wrists, even though I had a significant amount of fur to cushion against that.

Really, I had so many unpleasant physical sensations going on that I could barely count. All I knew was, I was going to need to deal with it. It would be best not to give Jessie and James, if they came into the room, the satisfaction of knowing that they had gotten to me. I would remain as calm, cool, and collected on the outside as possible, even if, on the inside, I was as freaked out as it was possible to be. All I wanted was to be out of this dark, dank cell.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I technically could have gotten up and walked over to answer it, but it was far quicker for the Team Rocket scientist to walk in on his own, carrying a cardboard box. This begged the question of why he had to knock in the first place, but it probably didn't matter too much.

"Good morning, Lucas London" the scientist said. "My name is Dr. Shives, and I am going to be the one conducting the experiments on you. Trust me when I say that they will be performed in as humane a manner as possible".

I grunted. There was no way he was being serious! I had to fight the urge to laugh, but it wouldn't be from thinking something was amusing. It would have been at the fact that he could say something that was so blatantly untrue, something that I _knew_ was untrue. There was just no way that he could possibly be doing anything in a humane manner, the way things were going. Team Rocket was bound and determined to find out the secret behind my transformation.

Of course, I had a pretty good feeling that it had to do with that mysterious necklace. As to where that necklace had come from, or why it had even been made in the first place, his guess would be as good as mine.

"Today, I am going to make sure that we find the secret behind your transformation, or at least get closer to the solution. I have this bag of pure caffeine, which will be administered intravenously. Were we to have you drink it, you would not be able to keep it down".

I fought the urge to laugh once again. There was no way he was being serious!

Then, he revealed what was inside the box. A bag of something labelled **PURE CAFFEINE: USE WITH CAUTION,** a tube, and a needle. At that point, I knew that he was going to follow through with it. And there was nothing I could do about it. After all, I was still chained to the wall, and, if I thrashed around to try and prevent it, there would be no way that they wouldn't just use a tranquilizer, get the IV in anyway, and my efforts would have been utterly fruitless.

Better not to wake up with that huge headache, I supposed.

"Do it" I said through clenched teeth.

Dr. Shives gave me a dirty look. "What did you say?"

"I said, _do it_. I've always wanted to have an IV drip of caffeine". Of course, I was being sarcastic. I had never had a cup of coffee in my life, other than a sip or two, which I promptly spat back up due to the disgusting taste. Truth be told, I've never understood why so many people depend on it to get through the day. I've always been able to do just fine, even though I don't have the most energetic personality.

An IV of caffeine would probably be ripped out immediately, since I'd be going crazy. I never bothered to find out if I had ADHD, but I might find out now.

"Okay" Dr. Shives said, tying a tourniquet around my arm, while being careful not to cut himself on my extremely sharp claws. "This will only hurt a little".

He stuck the needle into my arm, which hurt more than I would have thought at first. I've never been one to be that afraid of needles, which might have something to do with telling myself that it'll only last for a second, and then it'll be over, just like that.

Still, it was quite something to know what was going to happen. What would it be like to be pumped full of pure caffeine? Would I feel the urge to run wild, to break these chains away? Would I end up hurting myself? Would something else bad happen? Would that be outweighed by whatever harm could be caused by the caffeine?

The tube was inserted, and the bag was held in the air by Dr. Shives. With the pole next to him, he hung the bag from there. I could understand that it might get tiring to hold onto that bag for too long. Truth be told, Dr. Shives was probably just a subordinate, forced by his boss to do this. However, that didn't make me hate him any less. He was still engaging in unethical experimentation on a teenage boy who had just so happened to transform into a Zoroark. It made no sense from the standpoint of being an ethical person. However, it made _perfect_ sense if you were just another one of Team Rocket's cronies, not willing to think for yourself.

As soon as the first drops of caffeine began making their way into my veins, I felt a small buzz. It felt like the inside of my head was made of gears, spinning around and around in order to keep me going. It made me feel less grounded, in a way. That was not a reassuring feeling, I can tell you that much. I do not recommend getting kidnapped by Team Rocket and experimented on in this manner.

The more caffeine they got into me, the more hyper I felt on the inside. I wanted to just run, run so far away from all of my troubles. I didn't feel like I was on cloud nine, not by a long shot, but I felt far less tethered to this world, as well as the pain.

To sum it all up, it felt both blissful and terrifying at the same time. Blissful, in that I no longer was consumed by the pain of the shackles, and the constant headache I had been having lately. Terrifying, because it felt like I was almost outside of my body.

People often talk about out-of-body experiences they have had as being blissful, or amazing. For me, it was pretty scary. I didn't know what was going on, and I didn't feel as though I was able to scream. Whatever was in this bag of caffeine might have also included something to make me feel as though I couldn't talk...but I thought it was _pure_ caffeine? Couldn't that kill within minutes, if you took too much of it?

I didn't know. All I _did_ know was, if I managed to survive the day, I would never become a coffee drinker. My parents, one of whom was now deceased, had both required their usual cup to get through the day, and I had always prided myself on not being one of those people. What if I became addicted as a result of this?

Even with all of these jumbled thoughts running through my head, I managed to endure the hour, trying not to pass out from the sheer force of all the caffeine. I saw that the bag had pretty much been drained, so Dr. Shives, who had been watching over me the whole time, helped me up.

"Okay, Lucas London. You will now run on the Pokemon treadmill for an hour".

I groaned on the inside. I had never been one for distance running; I could do short distances, since my legs are very long, making me kind of like a gazelle in that manner. However, as soon as distance running was put into the mix, you could count me out.

Then again, I was now a Zoroark. _And_ I had just been given a very high dose of pure caffeine, a dose that would likely have killed a human. Cle  
arly, number 571 had some power to survive it.

The only question was, what would await me on the treadmill?

* * *

The Pokemon treadmill was a huge thing, about thirty feet square.

For this was not like a normal treadmill; I was told that it would speed up or slow down according to my speed, and there were no guardrails either. No safety clip to put on my shirt, not that I could have worn one anyways.

"Get on" Dr. Shives said. "It will measure your heart rate as you run, because Team Rocket's technology _has_ gotten to that point. We don't need any electrodes; the treadmill has built those in, and they don't need to be on your chest".

"That is quite the technology you've got there" I said. I'd been forced to admit it, because I was generally interested in science, and that had not changed now that I was no longer a human. If anything, the necklace made science more interesting to me; I wanted to find out the secret behind my transformation as much as Team Rocket did.

The only difference was, I didn't want to go to such lengths in order to do it.

" _Get on"_ Dr. Shives repeated, and I was forced to obey him. I didn't know what other tricks he had up his sleeve, should I refuse, but I didn't want to take that risk.

As soon as I was on, I started running in order to get away from that man. However, just like he had said, the treadmill moved at a speed that was prohibitively fast for making forward momentum. Not only that, but, when I tried speeding up a little, the conveyor belt sped up with me. It sure as hell seemed that the speed of the treadmill was affected by my own speed.

When I started slowing down, so did the conveyor belt. Indeed, this was what was going on. I knew it.

This went on for what felt like an eternity. As I sped up, so did the treadmill. I couldn't get off it; it was as though there were an invisible wall covering the perimeter of the treadmill. Of course, I wasn't going to take the risk of severely injuring myself by running off, but even if I had wanted to, this would have been very difficult if not impossible.

I became more and more short of breath. Like I said, I've never had the best stamina when it comes to running. Even as a Zoroark, that was somewhat true, but the treadmill compensated for that easily. It was hard to fall off on accident, since it automatically changed speeds depending on the runner's speed. Overall, while it was not a pleasant experience by any means, it was definitely interesting that Team Rocket had such power. The government was going to have to figure out a new way to fight them, that was for sure.

Finally, it was over. I was led back to my room, and I actually had to lean on Dr. Shives for support, since I was just so incredibly exhausted that I had difficulty walking on my own. It was a little embarrassing, but there was no one around to see. As much as I hated the doctor, he was at least not allowing me to faceplant on the ground.

When we got back to my room, I was shackled back to the bar and led back into bed. I fell asleep almost immediately, running on the treadmill having taken a lot out of me.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

The next morning found us once again eating from the Pokemon center's cafeteria while discussing plans to rescue Lucas.

We were going to make our attempt to rescue Lucas the next day. The thought of what we were going to attempt made my heart race faster, which made me think about... _that._

To put it one way, I had kind of had the devil on my shoulder ever since I had been diagnosed with my heart condition. He had always been telling me to cause as much chaos as possible, since I'd be checking out of this world in not too long.

 _Five years,_ I thought. _That was four years ago. How long until my heart stops working? How much longer do I have?_

The answer was, there was no way of knowing. Some days I felt fine. Some days I had trouble catching my breath, and then I really did feel as though I was dying. Lately, I'd been having a lot of good days, and hopefully that wouldn't end anytime soon. Right now, things were going pretty well for me, all things considered.

"Hey, Kieran, want to go train our Pokemon for the battle tomorrow?" Eric asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts. I realized that I'd been sitting, cross-legged, on my bed, much like a Buddhist monk or a meditating Lucario. For all I knew, I'd been sound asleep.

"That can't hurt" I said, standing up. "Let's go".

Michelle, Samuel, and Malcolm all seemed eager to as well. I was glad that I wasn't wearing my pajamas; I had slept in my normal clothes that night. Some people only sleep in their underwear, some nude, but I'm not one of those people. For me, it's either normal clothes or PJs. Say what you will, but I have always preferred to dress modestly.

We left the room and headed into town. Rocket was a small town right on the coast, with plenty of taverns and other small businesses. However, that wasn't what we were looking for.

"Here's the battling arena!" Eric said. "We found it!"

I saw what he was talking about. There was a small area, similar in size and appearance to an outdoor basketball court, that looked like it was meant to be used for battling. Instead of the usual circle that you see in the middle of a court, there was an image of a Pokeball. There was no doubt that this was the place.

"I like it here" Michelle said. "I love the sun, the sound of the waves...the sea is just awesome".

"Where's Team Rocket?" Malcolm asked. "I mean, I don't see a huge castle or anything like that".

I was about to point out that an evil organization like Team Rocket that was worth their salt would absolutely not have their location be so clear to see at a couple of miles away. Perhaps it was out to sea by a little bit, or hidden using some special technology. Really, we didn't know.

We watched Golem duke it out with Haunter, Beautifly fight against Zubat. I could have called my own Pokemon to come and do some practice battling, but I didn't feel like it. Even though there were a lot of Poison types that were loyal to me whenever they got to know me, I didn't feel like it would be a good idea to call them out right now. I wanted them to be well-rested for tomorrow.

One might consider that a silly idea, but it was true. Sometimes, I couldn't get the Pokemon to work with me, and they would need a break. When that was the case, I had no option but to honor their requests. I might be a lot of things, but I'm not a Pokemon abuser.

Suddenly, as Zubat was battling against Golem, we saw a man walk up to us. It wasn't someone I recognized, but his presence was intimidating just the same.

He was a very large man, tall and stocky, who looked to be a couple of years younger than myself (although, looking at me, you wouldn't believe that I was only 24 years old). He must have been a good six inches taller even than Lucas, who stood at six feet, two inches.

I was surprised to see him there, but he kept on walking towards us, moving with a purpose. I could guess that this purpose was to find us for whatever end Team Rocket had set up for them.

"Who are you?" I asked the man. His head wasn't very prominent on his muscular body, which was adorned in a well-worn piece of Kevlar vest. He had green eyes and light brown hair, and he wore a friendly expression once he got closer. Although, the friendliness was mixed with ferocity, if that was even possible and not a grade-A walking contradiction.

"My name's Garfield O'Shannon, and I want to help you guys" he said.

We all looked at each other, shocked.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

I woke up in the middle of the night to the feeling of a prick in my arm. It was just above the bandage that had been placed after the last IV, and I got the feeling that I might have to go through this all again.

Trying to open my eyes, I saw Dr. Shives once again. He wore an expression of determination, determination to find out what the hell was going on with me. Again, something I didn't blame him for, but I just wished he could have found a different way to go about it. He didn't have to treat me so poorly.

Soon, an IV was put in my arm once again. This time, however, I was able to see that something was not getting put _into_ my arm; rather, something was being taken out of it. Blood?

The more they took, the weaker I felt. It wasn't hard to get back to sleep once again, with my last thoughts being, _Man, this sucks. They had better come and get me soon._

* * *

 **Not a very long chapter, but better than the last one. Thank you to Zaravan for giving me Garfield, a character that has a very interesting profile.**

 **Also, this story has now passed the 60,000-word mark. This will make it easier to find in the Pokémon section, since it'll be in its own word category. I'm definitely glad to have reached this point.**

 **I don't know if I will update on May 29, which is my cake day of sorts. My first anniversary of joining this site, in case you don't know what that means. I was considering writing a small one-shot inspired by Matthias Unidostres, featuring some of my fans, but I decided against it. I just want to write this.**

 **In any case, thank you for over 5,000 views, and have a nice day.**

 **Sincerely, SnowLucario**


	15. The Trail

**I just told my mother that I'd add a congrats to Sarah Lacina for winning Survivor: Game Changers. Immediately, I realized my mistake. My brother was literally three feet away from me, meaning I spoiled the winner for him. I told him Culpepper won after that, but he's still going to be pissed.**

 **I would LOVE it if you reviewed this chapter. It's the largest one yet at just a couple inches over 8,000 words, and there must be SOMETHING you can say about it. Because, if you can't, that's a big problem. There's plenty of action, emotion, and even humor in this chapter. It's got something for everyone, just like Canobie Lake Park. (For those of you who don't know, that's probably the best-known amusement park in all of New England).**

 **As for the chapter title, you'll find out later. It was a pretty funny scene to write, and, if it makes you really hate a specific character, then come to my home and lynch me. I don't care. I'm just a cruel husk of a human being, writing fanfiction.**

 _Answer: I quite like Billy Talent, as I am sure you have realized by now. Look up the songs "Surrender", "Fallen Leaves", and "Afraid Of Heights", and you'll see why I'm such a fan. In addition, I do like some songs by Little Mix._

 _Question: How would you describe yourself in one sentence?_

 **Thank you to Zaravan for Garfield, also! A lot of Garfield's patterns of speaking come from the eccentric Zaravan, who often capitalizes nouns like Soldier or Conscript. There's something I find amusing, but also endearing (not in a romantic way) about that. In any case, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

 **GARFIELD'S POV**

 _I walked along the avenue. I never thought that I'd meet so many nice people, but this was what happened to me on that fateful day._

 _Twenty years old, having just gotten out of college (with high honors, I might add, since I graduated at such a young age), and I was looking for something to do in Skylock , Maine. I'd gone on a backpacking trip up the Atlantic coast of the United States, looking for adventure. You could say that I'm one of those people who enjoys living on the edge. That would definitely be accurate._

 _Skylock was a small town in the middle of the Maine coast, overlooking the harbor, full of islands. Penobscot Bay was not too far from here, but I wasn't here for that._

Hmmm, _I thought._ Here's a bakery.

 _Indeed, there was a bakery at the end of the road, leading off into a harbor full of sailboats and lobster traps. I could almost taste the strawberry pastries that were strategically placed right at the entrance windows so as to make your mouth water as much as possible. I tried to ignore the hunger pangs that were visiting me right now, but it was no use. I was absolutely fixated on getting a pastry; I loved baked goods, although I tried to limit the amount I ate, because the more of them I ate, the more of them I_ wanted _to eat. That was a vicious cycle right there._

 _I walked into the bakery and requested one strawberry pastry, along with an iced latte. I was one of those people who could not get by without my usual morning coffee. I might have sounded rude, but I didn't care. I needed the energy provided by that boost of caffeine._

 _As soon as I had been given my requested items, and I paid her, I saw that there was a broom and dustpan right next to the handle of the bathroom door. Clearly, someone had been in the process of beginning to clean the bakery, but had not yet gotten to it. I wasn't sure why they would not have just finished the job themselves, but I was not, as much as some people might have thought I would be, a cruel person. I was willing to help these people._

 _As long as I got something in return. I'm not the most altruistic person, I'll admit that._

" _Hey" I said, turning to the old woman behind the counter._

" _What is it?" she asked me, revealing perfectly white teeth. She looked pretty good for someone who had to be in her sixties or seventies at the very least._

" _I'll sweep up the bakery, and I get my pastry for free. How does that sound?"_

 _The old lady smiled. "Of course, you young fellow. I don't need the extra money"._

 _I nodded, leaving my pastry bag on the counter along with my cup of coffee. I grabbed the broom and dustpan began sweeping the place up, noting every little piece of dust I could find; I didn't want to half-ass this job. I wanted to prove to this woman that I had earned getting the pastry for free._

 _After thirty minutes of sweeping, my arms and back didn't ache at all. This, despite the fact that I stood 6 feet, 8 inches tall. I supposed it was because of how much muscle was on my body, just how strong I was._

" _That's good" the old woman said. "You may have your money back"._

 _She refunded the $2.50 I'd paid for the pastry, as well as the $5 I'd paid for the coffee, and then I thanked her. She said, "No. Thank_ you. _Thank you for cleaning the store"._

" _No problem" I said. "I'm going to be going now"._

" _Okay" the woman said. "You may come back whenever you like"._

 _I walked out of the bakery, where I heard the sound of a slightly gruff voice yelling at me. It was yelling..._

"Wake up, Garfield!"

I opened my eyes. As it turned out, it had been the Lucario who was yelling at me. His name was Samuel, I remembered. Samuel Cranmore.

"I'm up" I said, before he could dump a bucket full of cold water on me or something like that. I knew that I didn't need _that_ in order to wake up.

"Today's the day" Eric said. "We're going to storm in there, kick some Team Rocket ass, and save Lucas London. That is the goal".

We all nodded. Kieran, Malcolm, and Michelle were all already up, and all I had to do was to put on my normal clothing and Kevlar armor over my boxer shorts. We weren't even going to get breakfast today, since not having anything in our stomachs would make it easier to run when we had to. And we _would_ have to.

I headed into the bathroom to change. Once I was out of there, Kieran said, "Okay. Are you guys ready?"

Eric gave Kieran a dirty look. "I never said that you were the leader of this group".

Michelle spoke up next. "I don't see why we need to have an official leader! Let's just go there, and we'll have to play things by year. We'll need to see how well the place is defended, how many enemies there are...you get the idea. It's not going to be as simple as just having one leader and they make all of the decisions.

Samuel nodded. "Michelle is right. Let's just get there, and we're going to figure it out".

"I drove here" I said, and it was true. I had driven my Jeep all the way up from Florida in order to get to Maine, and I had driven to the Pokemon center they were staying at. How I knew that they were staying at this Pokemon center...well, even I didn't know that. Somehow, maybe even by way of Arceus himself, I had that knowledge. Something I'd ask the god of Pokemon once I met him.

"All right" Malcolm said. "We're driving to the fortress? I've never been in a car before!"

Man, that young Zorua was annoying. He'd kept me up half the night with his bouncing on the bed. Okay, maybe not _half the night,_ since he stopped around ten or eleven in the evening, but it was hard to get to sleep, knowing just how exuberant he was. I got the feeling that he'd stop bouncing on his _own_ bed and start bouncing on _my_ bed. That might not have been supported by any hard evidence, but it was true. That was the mindset I had.

"Yes, we're driving there" Eric said. "I was going to take my own car, but let's go with Garfield. Can your Jeep hold…", he took a quick count of the people in the room, "...six people?"

"Yes, it can" I said. "I see that you have five Pokeballs...are you going to be using all of them in this battle?"

"Why not?" Eric asked. It was clearly a rhetorical question. Of _course_ he was going to take all of the help he could get.

"Are you guys all ready?" Kieran asked. "Take anything you think you might need, and we'll get out of here. To the fortress we'll go".

* * *

The headquarters of Team Rocket was certainly magnificent.

A large castle with the letter R in bright red paint, probably a good quarter of a mile squared. It was clear to see that it was behind an enormous, twenty-foot wall. There was a gate in the middle, and a passcode lock on the other side. If someone could reach through there, it might be possible to punch in the passcode, but we had no idea what it was.

"Do you have a Psychic type, Eric?" I asked the older man. In response, he held out his green Pokeball.

Most Pokeballs were red, but they did come in many other colors, including blue, yellow, green, purple, black, orange, medium violet red, cyan, gold, and white, as well as the opportunity to make your own custom colors. While other colors besides red were sold, they were prohibitively expensive for many people.

"Yes, I do" Eric said. "Mesprit".

The Legendary Pokemon (I was shocked that Eric had a Legendary at all), came out of its Pokeball and began flying over towards the gate.

"What's the code?" I asked it.

Really, I didn't expect that to work. But, granted, I had never owned a Legendary Pokemon, or any Pokemon at all for that matter, myself, so I supposed that I had little basis for my lack of faith in Mesprit.

"The code is 522113" Mesprit said, flying over the wall. Really, why couldn't it have carried us in, if it was so easy for it to just fly over? Maybe it just wasn't strong enough.

Once Mesprit was on the other side of the wall, it punched in the code. As soon as it had finished, the gates opened, and alarms started wailing, louder than the sirens of an ambulance.

" **WARNING! THE GATE HAS BEEN PENETRATED! SECURITY SEVERELY COMPROMISED!"  
**

I was covering my ears, but Samuel was clearly trying hard not to pass out, since Lucario had extremely strong senses of hearing. I was tempted to leave, but we knew that Lucas was counting on us. It might be silly to risk losing our lives for the sake of saving one member of our group, but I was going to do it.

Of course, Kieran had told me what our group's goal was. If we managed to rescue Lucas, he would join us on a quest to find the origin of a mysterious necklace that had transformed him and Samuel into Pokemon. It sounded like an outlandish story, and Kieran's gaunt face and messy gray hair didn't make him look very trustworthy, but you could never judge a book by its cover.

Besides, the others stuck to the same story, so I figured, why not? Why not trust these people? After all, the very reason I had gone on the trip along the eastern coast of America was because I was looking for adventure. I was living on the edge, a la Chris McCandless.

"Let's run in!" I yelled. Our cover had been blown; we couldn't stay there. Luckily, the fortress was several miles from the town of Rocket, so it was likely that most of the citizens wouldn't hear it, or it was just another ambulance siren, taking someone to the hospital. Nothing out of the ordinary.

With that, we ran into the edge of the castle grounds. Inside, we had no idea what we would find.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

Normally, this isn't what I would be doing on your average Thursday morning. Normally, I'd be sitting in second-period math, doing some boring equations from the SMART board. However, this was not an average Thursday morning.

I was storming the fortress of Team Rocket's Maine branch, trying to save my elder brother, who had been kidnapped by Jessie and James. Lucas had been transformed into a Zoroark, and we were trying to find out the cause. If I survived the day, it would likely be something we would discuss for months, if not years, afterwards. If we didn't survive the day, then Lucas might not either.

"Here" Eric said to me once we were inside the fortress. He tossed me his blue Pokeball.

"This is Golem?" I asked him. I tried to remember what color Pokeball had been housing each of Eric's pocket monsters, but I wasn't a hundred percent certain.

"Yes" Eric told me. "I think that you can be trusted to wield one of my Pokemon. Golem's definitely going to be able to help with taking down some of Team Rocket's foot soldiers, and you _know_ that they'll have those. They're practically known for them!"

"True" I said. "I accept Golem. Isn't that a great responsibility, though?"

The man eyed me suspiciously. "Are you saying that you're not trustworthy? Because if that's the case…".

"No, I wasn't saying that. I'm just saying, that's a lot of trust to put in someone you've only known for two days. Not even that".

Eric nodded. "I see. But I'm still going to let you use Golem. Just be careful with him, okay?"

I nodded. I was more than willing to be careful with Eric's Pokemon, and Golem really was kind of cute, if you ignored what he was no doubt capable of.

We had entered the fortress now. The entrance hall was about twenty feet tall and thirty feet wide, with mostly black paint on the walls and red windows that did not lead outside. Perhaps they were just there to intimidate, or to make it look like something you'd see in a Star Wars movie.

"We should split up, in order to look" Kieran said. He was keeping a good poker face, so, if he was lying, there was no good way to tell.

Garfield eyed the gray-haired man suspiciously. "Isn't this always how it goes wrong in the movies? The good guys split up, and then each individual group of them gets cut down by the enemy forces? Why should we do that here?"

"This isn't a movie, Garfield" Samuel said, staring at the largest member of our group. "I don't know why you think we shouldn't split up. Just two groups of three. Could I go with Michelle and Eric?"

* * *

Maybe it was just me, but when Samuel said my name, I thought I saw him blush a little. Did he... _like_ me? As in, _like_ like me? As in, have a crush on me?

 _Nah, it's nothing. Just your imagination. And even if it's not, we have something else to focus on right now. Don't dwell on whether or not Samuel Cranmore has a crush on you._

That voice inside my head might have been Arceus himself, or it might have been my own conscience. Either way, I took its advice, deciding on the best course of action.

"I don't think so, Samuel" I told him. "I'd rather go with Garfield and Kieran. Do you two guys have any problems with each other?"

Both young men looked in each other's direction. After nodding in unison, Garfield said, "We don't have a problem with that".

Well, _that_ was a relief.

"That leaves Samuel, Malcolm, and me" Eric said. "Malcolm? You cool with that?"

I could tell that Malcolm, who hadn't spoken since we had breached the gates of the fortress, maybe even since we had left the Pokemon center, was very nervous. He likely had some degree of ADHD; even though I wasn't a psychologist, I could tell that much. The young Zorua was shivering in fear, staring up at me, looking as though he might start whimpering.

"It'll be fine, Malcolm" Samuel said. "I'll help protect you. Right, Eric?"

"Yeah" Eric said. "Come on, guys. We don't have a second to lose. Every second we waste here is another second they could find us, another second that Lucas might get killed. Let's go".

Eric, Malcolm, and Samuel took the path to the right of us as soon as we reached the end of the hallway. Kieran, Garfield, and myself took the path to the left. We didn't know if we would ever see each other again, and in what circumstances.

* * *

Almost immediately, we ran into a problem. It wasn't a major problem, not one that was likely to kill us imminently, but it was a problem nonetheless.

In front of us was a fast-moving river, about forty feet wide. Much too far to jump, and I wasn't much of a swimmer. I mean, I could swim in order to save my life, but I wasn't too fancy in terms of specific strokes, something that I had never understood to be a problem. After all, if you can swim well enough to save your own life, or somebody else's, shouldn't that be enough? Why should I need to learn all of these fancy techniques if the main purpose of swimming is just that, staying alive?

 _Oh, great. I don't need_ that _earworm._

"How do we get across?" Garfield asked. "Do we know how deep it is?"

Truth be told, I wasn't sure I trusted Kieran not to push me in and let me drown if it would save himself. I might have _sounded_ eager to join up with him and Garfield, but I had really only wanted two twenty-something men to help protect me. And yes, I know just how incredibly selfish that sounds, but it was true.

However, Kieran Mortimer was a man who had done nothing but hurt me the first time we'd met him. He'd set his army of Poison types on our house, which resulted in the death of my mother, and that had made us reluctant to align with him. Of course, once we learned that he was going to help us find some important information, we really did have no other option. And, now that Lucas had gotten himself into this mess, we had to help get him out of it. It was as simple as that. Kieran Mortimer might be our best avenue to doing that.

On the other hand, Garfield O'Shannon was a man I barely knew, who was probably twice my size. I stand 5 feet, 7 inches tall to my brother's 6'2", but this man was 6'8", which was quite something. I had been raised not to trust a stranger who was this large and ripped, and yet I was trusting Garfield. I supposed that this was the way the cookie crumbled.

"How do we get across this river?" Garfield asked.

"We could check to see how deep it is first" Kieran responded. Okay, now I _knew_ that he was out to get me.

"Let's just try and swim" the large man said. With his muscles, it must have been very easy for him to say. I could tell that Kieran didn't particularly like the idea of swimming across; he appeared to be physically weak, or at least not nearly as strong as Garfield. What was going on with him, and why hadn't he told us?

"I'm not a great swimmer" I admitted.

"Me neither" Kieran said.

"Hold my hands, both of you" Garfield said. "Paddle with your feet, and we should get across. Just like a pair of skydivers in formation".

None of us had ever been skydiving, but we knew what he was talking about. I grabbed Garfield's right hand, while Kieran grabbed his left. Together, we pushed ourselves into the river.

Indeed, it was rushing quickly, and it was cold as well. The average temperature of the ocean water in Maine during the summer, probably minus a couple of degrees, and this was the temperature of the river.

In a formation much like we were making snow angels, we pushed ourselves across. Luckily, the river was shallow enough that my feet were usually able to touch the bottom, maybe four feet deep. As long as I held onto Garfield's arm, just like a little kid, I was able to keep myself anchored to the ground. If I fell, both men would fall with me. I couldn't allow that to happen.

Finally, we reached the other end. You know when you get into a cold body of water, be it a pool, lake, or the ocean, and you are cold at first but then get used to it, so that when you get out, you're cold once again?

This was like that feeling on steroids. I was shivering violently, feeling like I might never be warm again. At least we had made it across, though. We could deal with possible hypothermia later.

"Let's forge onward" Garfield said. "The more we get moving, the easier it will be to stay warm. That's what they always say, and I see why".

"That's true" Kieran said, although it was clear to see that his teeth were chattering. Clearly, he wanted a towel, or something else to dry off with.

Suddenly, there was a sound that was similar to a fan turning on...and it _was_ a fan turning on, or rather a series of them. They were blowing air down towards us... _warm_ air.

Within seconds, my wet clothing felt as though it had just been sitting on top of an activated furnace, or it had just come out of the dryer. It felt somewhat heavenly, almost. Not something that we could focus on at the moment, but still.

"That was convenient" I said, trying not to laugh.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

I woke up again. I had no way of knowing how long I had been asleep, or unconscious, for, other than the bag right next to me.

No wonder I felt so lethargic. They were taking such a large amount of my blood, I wouldn't exactly be able to run the Boston Marathon anytime soon.

I'd never actually donated blood before, but I'd heard that they always told you to have a cookie and orange drink after you were done, in order to not pass out or something. For me, I didn't know what would be necessary.

My friends had still not come for me; I was beginning to become convinced that they never would. In fact, the more I thought about it, it had been silly for me to even imagine that they _might._ After all, for all I knew, this place was probably booby-trapped up the wazoo. There was no way that Kieran, Malcolm, Michelle, and Samuel would even be able to come _close_ to saving me. Just none.

The way things were going, I would probably die this way, slowly drained of blood, my very life force, becoming just a husk of my former self. There was going to be a bloodless Zoroark carcass to dispose of once it was done.

I imagined the scene. My body, having been drained of all of its fluids, shutting down. I'd just be a corpse at that point. They'd probably put me in a wheelbarrow and take me to some collective incinerator, left to be burned to a crisp. But I'd be dead anyways, so why should I even care?

Despite this, I _did_ care. For the most part, I'd never really cared what happened to my body when I died, but I did care when one of the options was getting dumped into an incinerator in the Maine fortress of Team Rocket. That thought was nauseating.

Literally, nauseating. I had to fight sick from rising in my throat. I was lying down, so I might choke on my vomit, which would lead to an even earlier death. That was not a way I wanted to go out.

I knew I was too weak to rise, what with my lack of blood. At _least_ two pints had to have been drained, and I remembered from health class that three was enough to cause unconsciousness. At what point were Team Rocket going to admit that they weren't taking the blood for tests, and only doing it in order to hurt me?

Because, what with the amount they had already taken out, I got the feeling that it was at least partly the latter. Hopefully, they hadn't discovered the secret just yet.

I saw, on the floor, the purple flower. For whatever reason, neither Dr. Shives nor anyone else who might have come during the time I was out had made the decision to take that purple flower. This was a good thing, since I didn't want the information falling into their hands.

I tried to piece together the knowledge I had gotten from the flower. The knowledge that I had paid such a high price to acquire.

I imagined the scene if I was rescued. I would probably be brought to the hospital...where the doctors would take the flower, convinced that it was contaminated. Which, you know, is a reasonable thing to be worried about in a building with many severely ill patients.

Even though I wasn't strong enough to get up, I let my feet hang off the bed until they touched the ground. Then, I pulled myself up, still chained to the wall.

This was, as you could probably guess, a monumental mistake. As soon as I was on my feet, I felt like I was going to be off my feet within seconds. My head swam in a whirlpool, and I felt like I was on the deck of a ship in a storm. Needless to say, this was not a pleasant sensation.

I sat down before I could pass out, so as to get some blood back to my brain. I was still tethered to the line that was taking blood from my arm, which made this a little annoying.

You might be wondering: _Lucas, why didn't you just pull the IV out? You wouldn't be constantly supplying that huge bag with your blood, and you wouldn't get sucked dry, right? So why didn't you?_

The answer to that question was simple. If I removed the tube, blood would come out of the insertion point at a much faster rate than it currently was. This would only serve to accelerate my demise.

I couldn't fight my going back to sleep. It felt like I was being forced into the blackness, and I wasn't going to go gently. I tried to keep my eyes open for as long as possible, but, just like I was being put under for surgery, I lost.

Sinking into unconsciousness, my last thought was, _I'm fucked._

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

For the most part, we weren't encountering very many enemies. Things seemed to be going suspiciously well for us, to the point that we were almost expecting a horde of Meowth to come out of any door, at pretty much any time. It was more than possible, given that we were at Team Rocket's base of operations for the entire state of Maine.

Malcolm, despite having shown himself to be timid in the face of danger at the start of the day, was as energetic as ever now that we were actually in the depths of the fortress. He bounded along the hallways, as though he was a dog playing fetch. He also had a smile on his face, which looked oddly creepy on the young Zorua.

It might have also been just me, but it seemed that a dark red light was occasionally engulfing Malcolm. I wondered if this was the first signs of him getting ready to evolve into a Zoroark, but that was a ridiculous thought. After all, if we weren't fighting enemies too much, he also wouldn't level up too much...right?

As for Eric, he was a faster runner than we thought. A thirty-something man against a teenage Lucario and a ten-year-old Zorua was a closer match than you might expect. Even hauling all of his Pokeballs, it was possible for him to move at quite a high speed.

Eventually, breathing heavily, he said, "Guys, let's stop and read this map. This might provide an important clue to where Lucas is. We can't just run around like chickens with our heads cut off".

That might have been an extraordinarily cliche analogy, but it was true. Malcolm and I stopped next to the map, and I analyzed it, taking every intricacy of it into account.

The map was arranged with many very narrow black lines that I assumed were hallways. In addition, there was a yellow arrow pointing to a dot on one of the lines, which I could guess was where we were at the moment. Searching the map for our starting point, the entrance of the fortress, revealed that we had indeed come quite a long way from it. Even if we could manage to find Lucas (and maybe find a stretcher to carry him out on, should he be in a poor condition), there was no guarantee that we would be able to find our way out. Unless…

"Hey, Eric?" I asked the man.

"Yeah?" Eric said, not looking at me. He was still pretty fixated on the map.

"Can't Mesprit teleport us out of here, once we find Lucas?"

Eric scratched his small black beard, which was little more than peach fuzz. "I didn't think of that, but yes, I believe it can. We'll teleport back to the Pokemon center in Rocket, once we have found him. But, until we have retrieved Lucas London, we cannot, I repeat, _cannot_ let our guards down. Who knows what is lying in wait for us once we get to his room?"

The truth was, none of us did. For all we knew, Lucas's cell door might be armed with poisonous spikes that would come out and stab us. Even though I'd recovered from my stab wound fully, the memory was still fresh in my mind. I did not, I repeat, _did not_ wish to go through that again.

"Can we take the map off of the wall?" I asked Eric. "So that we can hold it as we run through?"

Eric shook his head. "I feel as though that might trigger another alarm, one that would cause something we don't need. We've gotten lucky so far, almost _too_ lucky. You of all people, Samuel Cranmore, will know that I don't want to let our lucky streak end".

I supposed he was right. Still, I would have loved to hold it as we ran, so that we could check our progress.

"How much farther?" Malcolm asked, sounding like a little kid on a road trip. Well, if he was tired, he could have not volunteered for this mission in the first place and stayed behind at the Pokemon center. I could have pointed this out, but I didn't want to cause any more trouble.

"I don't think too much" I said. "I think that we're getting close".

"Sure as hell hope so" the young Zorua said. "Because my paws hurt, and I gotta pee...really bad".

Unfortunately, there were no bathrooms nearby that we knew of. I was hoping that Malcolm wouldn't have been guzzling water before we had left, but I knew that this was too much to hope for, given how high-energy he usually was.

"Just hold it in, or pee your pants if you have to" Eric said, sounding more militaristic than usual. Although I was better at keeping things as bubble thoughts, those were pretty much my thoughts exactly. Why couldn't the Zorua hold it in?

"You know that I'm not even wearing pants!" Malcolm wailed. "But okay, I'll try to hold it in".

With that bit of unnecessary information, we continued down the hallway, hoping that we would be able to find the way to Lucas's cell before Malcolm pissed all over the ground. Because, if the latter happened...it might have some unintended consequences.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

For the most part, things were going all right for us. After crossing the river and continuing down the hallway, we came across yet another room. This one, however, was far more creepy.

It was about a hundred yards square, and the sight reminded me of the carbon freeze room from _Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back._ There was a walkway leading to a large, circular brown platform with neon orange lines leading from the edges to a pit in the middle. All of this was around a black hole.

"Where does this hole go, I wonder?" Michelle asked. "The center of the Earth?"

"No way" I said. "Think about this, Michelle. Would they really be able to dig all the way down there?"

Michelle held her arms up in surrender. "Hey, it was just a thought!"

Garfield shut us up fast, using his strong Irish accent. "Fellow Adventurers! Let us move onward, for there is no greater objective than saving our captured Companion!"

I would only later find out that Garfield O'Shannon frequently capitalized words when he wrote them down, as if _Adventurer_ and _Companion_ were specific military titles. I'd never been in the military; in fact, I would likely fail most of the health checks in order to get there. However, I knew enough about the subject in order to be sure of this.

For the most part, I was still unaware of Garfield's background. Was he from the military? He certainly seemed buff and harsh enough to be of that background. I'm not meaning to generalize here, but it's the truth.

"Where do we go now?" I asked. There seemed to be no way out other than the door on the other side of the room. The only problem was, the pit was at least thirty feet wide no matter where you went, so that you would need to build a bride to get across.

"Why not go back?" Michelle asked. "Surely there's a map somewhere around here. Or would Team Rocket have placed Lucas behind the most dangerous room in the building?"

" _Is_ this even the most dangerous room in the building?" Garfield said. "There could be any number of rooms with traps, but I say we try to find a way across. First the river, and now this pit. When will we finally be free of making our way across things?"

We made our way down the hallway and onto the circular platform. From there, I scanned the area for possible routes to get across.

There was one crane machine in a corner of the circle, so maybe we could use it to lift each other across the pit...but then one of us would be left on this side of the divide. That was when I noticed the blue button on the other side.

"Michelle" I said. "Stand where I tell you".

I knew that the girl didn't like heights very much. She wasn't as acrophobic as her brother, but there was no way she was going to agree with my plan unless I deceived her.

Then again, _create a little chaos-_ that was my modus operandi in life. Ever since I'd found out that my days in this world were numbered, I'd been determined to drag as many people as possible down with me. Was this the time?

 _No,_ I thought. _If I don't help them rescue Lucas, they're not going to trust me anymore. I have to do this._

Michelle looked a little skeptical, but she went into the spot that I told her to. She stood there as I got into the crane.

"What are you doing?" she asked, sounding exasperated, as though she had run out of patience.

I pressed the button on the grabber arm, which proceeded to yank Michelle into the air. Her panties were visible, but only slightly.

Michelle was hoisted twenty feet above the platform, and she started screaming, trying to wriggle out of there. I tried not to cackle with glee. This was pretty funny.

" _Are you crazy, Kieran?"_

Maybe I was a little crazy, but that idea didn't faze me one bit. That claw had an iron grip on her, and I began moving the lever to the point that she was over above the other side.

I lowered her gently towards the ground, and, once she was on her hands and knees once again, I pressed the button that would release her.

Michelle was free once again, rubbing her lower back, the part that had been grabbed. I was initially worried that she would refuse to press the button, saying that she wasn't going to trust me anymore after I had deceived her on this.

Luckily, I did not need to worry about this. Michelle began walking, like a robot, over to the blue button, which she pressed gingerly.

Immediately, a bridge formed across the gap, making it possible to walk across easily.

"You're a Genius, Kieran" Garfield muttered.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I began to slip. No surprise, since I was running right behind Malcolm. Wait... _no surprise?_

"Malcolm? Did you just piss all over the floor? I thought you could hold it!"

The young Zorua looked at me with an apologetic expression. "Sorry. Just had to let it fly, you know? At a certain point, you can't hold it anymore".

I supposed that was true, although I was going to have to be careful about running with Malcolm from here on out.

"Hey, look, it's a huge door!" Malcolm eventually blurted out.

Eric and I stopped in front of it.

Sure enough, Malcolm had been right. It _was_ a huge door. Ornate and crafted with stars in seven different colors, looking very much like the Thousand-Year Door. The door must have stood twenty feet tall, and I got the feeling that it led somewhere important.

"Is that...writing there?" Eric asked. "My eyesight's not as keen as it used to be. I used to have eagle eyes. Samuel, can you see what that says?"

At first, I couldn't see what the man meant. Eventually, however, I did notice the small letters etched onto the crimson design of the door. It was tough to read even with my extremely keen eyes, but I was able to see that it read LUCAS LEONARD LONDON.

"That's too easy!" I cried. Eric and Malcolm looked at me funny.

"What's too easy?" Malcolm asked me. I could tell that he still looked embarrassed from having urinated all along the hallway, but I was willing to let it go, at least for now. Besides, I doubted Eric would care, either, once he realized what I thought I had just discovered.

"It says his name right on the door! Lucas Leonard London! Is there any way he's not behind this door?"

"You're right" Eric said. "Let's head in there!"

With that, I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Figures.

Just then, we saw another group of people entering from the right of the door. At first, I wouldn't let myself believe that they were our friends, but I soon realized that it was…

"Kieran, Michelle, and Garfield!" I exclaimed. "You made it!"

Michelle whispered something angrily in Kieran's ear that sounded suspiciously like, " _Don't hoist me by my panties again!"_ , but I couldn't be sure of it.

"In any case" Garfield said. "Our group of Adventurers has reached a common Goal. The Captive is behind the door, is he not?"

"How did you know?" I asked incredulously.

"I could guess, given that you stopped right in front of it" the young man replied.

"Let's try to kick this door down" Eric said. "It won't open like a normal door. Is there some magical seal to it?"

"If there's a magical seal", said Michelle, "then it'd be absolutely _impossible_ to open. Right now, it doesn't seem that that is the case, either. We'll just have to figure out a way in, and then things are going to be easy. Eric, don't you have a Mesprit?"

The oldest member of our group nodded. "And it'll teleport us out as soon as we've got Lucas. It'll be easy to get out once we've found him. And there's one other thing I need to mention. The enemies might be coming after us soon, because-".

"I'll finish the sentence for him" I said, cutting Eric off. "Basically, Malcolm's bladder released itself as we were running down the hallway, making a trail of urine. They'll be coming upon us pretty soon".

"Which is why it's necessary that we get past this door first" Eric explained, giving me a dirty look for interrupting him. "Let's put as much force into it as possible. Maybe all six of us together can do it. Or...Mesprit?"

Eric pulled out his green Pokeball, releasing the pink Psychic type. Mesprit floated, three feet above the ground, looking slightly irritated at being forced out of its Pokeball.

"What do you ask of me?" it demanded. "You see, I was just taking a very nice nap, when you suddenly decide to make me do your bidding. What is it you wish me to accomplish for you?"

"Travel through the door, make it into the cell, and teleport Lucas London back out here. Then, teleport all of us to the Pokemon center. You got that?"

Mesprit nodded before snapping its fingers and going to the other side of the door.

We waited. And waited. Finally, we heard what sounded like guards coming down the hallway towards us. Had we been found as a result of the trail Malcolm had left, or was it as a result of the guards simply knowing where Lucas was being held?

 _Why isn't Mesprit coming back?_ I thought in frustration, kicking the door, which, in hindsight, was probably a dumb move, since it could only serve to alert the enemies to our presence even more. That was literally the only thing that could be achieved by it.

Eventually, Mesprit appeared on our side of the door once again.

"What's the problem?" Eric asked it.

"Lucas is too chained down to teleport over here" Mesprit stated, crossing its arms. "You will need to break down the door, and then we can get to Lucas. Someone can help get his cuffs off".

I decided to use a technique I had seen in action, but never actually used myself. I knew that it was possible to use aura to bolster your muscles if you were a Lucario, so I channelled all of the aura I could. With that, I yelled, " **EVERYONE! POUND!"**

We battered on the door with all of our might. Eventually, it did give way; it was evidently not enchanted. We ran through it, into a hallway with a much smaller door on the other side. It was two meters tall, like a normal door that you'd find in an elementary school. The amusing part, or the part that would at least have been amusing had this not been an extremely serious situation, was that Garfield actually had to duck in order to make his way through. On the other side, however, was not a pretty sight.

Lucas London was lying on a bed that looked less comfortable than your average hospital bed. He was connected to a tube that seemed, on first glance, to be an IV drip. However, it was draining blood _from_ his body, a fact that became clear upon a closer look.

Really, it was heinous, what these people were doing to him. Lucas was unconscious, shackled to a bar above his head. I saw Michelle right next to me, fighting back tears at the sight of her brother. Really, I would be as well if it was my own brother.

And yet...I felt such a strong platonic bond with the teenage boy that it was hard for me not to feel anger at this sight. Lucas deserved to be treated much better than this. He was a good guy, and, while he might call himself a jerk with a heart of gold, I certainly didn't see the first half of that statement as being accurate. Lucas wasn't a jerk.

"If we can teleport him to the Pokemon center", Garfield said, "they can take care of any injuries there. I'm no medic, but can you sense his health at all, Samuel?"

I reached into Lucas's aura. "He seems to be low on blood volume, severely dehydrated and malnourished. This despite it only having been two days since he was kidnapped".

"We need to get him out of here" Eric said. "He'll only lose more blood once we get him out of those chains. They'll need to get cut away at the hospital".

Since Pokemon centers were essentially combinations of hospitals and hostels, the words "Pokemon center" and "hospital" could be used pretty much interchangeably. I didn't really read too much into that.

In any case, it didn't matter. I heard the sound of guards racing down the hallway. We were almost out of time to escape.

We all formed a circle with our hands. I grabbed the leg of the unconscious Lucas, so that we could get out of there.

"Three...two...one... **teleport!"**

The last thing I saw was a pair of Team Rocket grunts rushing into the room, looking to capture us. They looked both shocked and angry, but it didn't take long until we were out of the fortress, and the sight of their faces disintegrated into my memory.

* * *

 **You know, I used to be the go-to guy for toilet humor, but no more. I really hope I don't lose many readers over this, and I promise that future chapters will not feature this. It's a reminder of how much more mature I have become, both as a person and as a writer, over the last year.**

 **Speaking of which, my one-year anniversary of joining this site is May 29, the scheduled day of my next update. Although I won't do the huge one-shot featuring some of my fans, I do want to commemorate it in some way. We'll see, though.**

 **With that, the longest chapter has come to an end. Man, I haven't done an 8,000er in months, not since the days of Attack Of The Anglars. And that was a LONG time ago, considering that I finished that story over February vacation, in Alberta. I still remember that marathon session of writing...the cramps. Ah, yes, the cramps.**

 **In any case, in addition to joining my Discord if you have not already, I hope you will rate and review, and hold out for the sixteenth chapter of...ZOROARK'S PENDANT!**


	16. Revelation

**Happy Memorial Day! For me, it means a day off of school.**

 **It's not a very long chapter, but, as measly as this may be, I want to dedicate this chapter to myself, for reasons listed below. There is no author's note at the bottom of this chapter, simply because I don't want to ruin the ending.**

 _Answer: I would say, "A teenage boy of questionable mental health, who spends hours a day writing "pretty good" but not "great"fanfictions". I take this title as a badge of honor, believe it or not._

 _Question: What is your favorite scene so far in the story?_

 **Also, it's my first anniversary of being a member of . I think that this is a cause for celebration, so send me a cake or something. Or root beer. (I'm just kidding). In addition, we have three important birthdays coming up. June 7 is Vice President Mike Pence's 58th birthday, June 12 is my own birthday (I'll be 17), and June 14 is the birthday of our President, Donald J. Trump, his 71st. This year, I'm not going to ask for any video games, because gaming is no longer that big a part of my life; maybe a couple of buffs, a fanfiction T-shirt if there is one, and a book by Dan Barker. And yes, I share a birthday with Anne Frank and former President George H.W. Bush.**

 **In any case, that's enough about me. You didn't come for that. Here comes the chapter.**

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

The way things were going, this outcome was far preferable to what could have happened, which would have been Lucas not being rescued at all. Based on that alone, you could say that I had no right to complain. Even so, being teleported was a jarring feeling that did not have any equal.

Imagine standing on a completely solid piece of land, one that doesn't move at all. Say, a highway. Now imagine being grabbed by the arm and spun like a top, through blackness, until you touch down somewhere completely different.

As soon as you land on the ground, imagine feeling like you were just on a broken teacup ride at an amusement park. You constantly feel as though you are about to vomit, one of the least pleasant sensations there is in this world. You're holding back the urge to lose your lunch.

Now, imagine that there are bright lights where you end up, instead of where you had come from, which was a dark, dank prison cell in the headquarters of Team Rocket. It's definitely a change that you will need to adjust to.

The second we landed, everything seemed to be chaos. We had landed in the emergency department of the Pokemon center's hospital section, and Lucas London was still with us. He was still slumped on the ground, completely dead to the world.

"Where did you teleport from?" a nurse asked in an urgent tone of voice. "Why is your Zoroark in chains?"

There was really no way to answer that question. Would they believe that Lucas had been kidnapped by Team Rocket?

"We got him from Team Rocket!" Garfield said, not seeming to care whether or not he was believed. "Just _please_ help get him better. Are you going to?"

"I mean, you're in the ER of the Pokemon center" the nurse said. A nametag read NURSE BLISS. "We are obligated by federal law to treat him. We'll diagnose the problem in the exam room. Although, I see that you have an aura user with you. You people have been staying with us for two nights now, right?" She looked over us, evidently confident that we were the same people who had just spent the last two nights in the Rocket Pokemon center.

"That is correct" I stated. "My name is Samuel Cranmore. Let's go to the exam room, and you can figure out how to treat him there".

Nurse Bliss didn't seem to have any problem with that, so I went into the room with her in order to see what they would do to Lucas.

Presumably due to the ordeal Lucas had been through, the young man remained either asleep or unconscious even as they were doing X-rays, which found nothing broken. In addition, there were other Lucario in the exam room who were able to determine his state using aura. I was permitted to watch the medical team as they cut the chains off of Lucas's wrists and ankles, which only resulted in a small amount of bleeding. It really only squirted slightly out.

Even so, this proved that they had been rubbed raw from the metal, and so he was bandaged around those parts. No other cuts or bruises were found, but his blood pressure was quite low, so they decided to try to fix that problem as well. Evidently, the reason his blood pressure was low was because his blood volume was low. Nothing to worry about, the doctors assured me.

Now, I was sitting by Lucas's bedside, reading _Battling Magazine._ Michelle sat on the other side of the bed, and Malcolm was standing on the ground, sniffing around for something, I didn't know what. Eric and Garfield were not present, since there was a limit of four visitors per patient at a time, but Kieran was, sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. Lucas was still sleeping, and he had an IV in that was giving him fluids. This was an improvement over his state just a few hours ago, that was for sure.

"I'm glad this worked out" Michelle said, grabbing Lucas's hand that did not have the drip in it. "I don't know what would have happened if...we had not rescued him".

I nodded. I didn't want to think about that hypothetical possibility, particularly since that had not panned out to be the case. Lucas London had been saved, at very little cost to our group. The more I thought about it, the happier I felt.

"So…" Michelle began, looking around the room, "...what happens when Lucas gets released? Where do we go?"

"The flower?" Malcolm asked, clearly trying to suppress a giggle.

Looking up, I saw that the flower, the same purple one that we had risked so much to get, had somehow not been thrown away by the doctors. Of course, if it really was enchanted, it was entirely possible that it had simply reappeared magically, and just wouldn't go away.

Currently, it was sitting in a jar that looked similar to a pill bottle, on top of the cabinet behind Lucas's IV stand. It looked as innocuous as ever to an outsider, since some hospital patients probably had flowers by their bedside, but it was completely clear that it was the same flower. Yep, Vivid Violet, #854185...that was it.

"Do you think that we should figure it out as soon as possible?" Kieran asked. "Get it ready right now, so that we can not be too worried later?"

"No" I said. "I think it best to wait until Lucas wakes up, involve him in the discussions. I think it'd be better that way".

"I agree with Samuel, Kieran" Lucas's sister said. "Let's wait until he's up, and then we'll figure things out. It might require using the flower first, in which case we're absolutely going to have to wait until he's out of the Pokemon center. It's a good thing that Zoroarks heal pretty fast".

I looked into the aura of Lucas London. I could tell that he was on the mend, for sure, but still pretty weak. He definitely wasn't as healthy as he had been before we had gotten the flower. Of course, the flower was not the cause of his current state...or was it?

Had the flower not rendered us all temporarily unconscious, would Team Rocket have still been able to kidnap Lucas? I suspected not, just because of the fact that we would have likely not been backed into a corner, all feeling like we had such enormous hangovers. Aura was pretty powerful, since it allowed me to check on Lucas's general vital signs and state.

Aura did have its limits, however. I could not always tell if a person had a chronic health problem, like cancer or a heart problem, unless it had gotten to the point that the person was overwhelmed with illness. Because of this, Lucario were not recommended to perform early cancer screenings without a mammogram, or whatever test was used to detect that type of cancer. Please see your normal medical professional for that.

"I think he'll wake up tomorrow morning" I said, knowing that I was right. Even though I had only been a Lucario for five or six weeks, I had become quite an expert at this.

"How do you know that?" Kieran asked. "Is it because of your aura?"

"Yes" I said, feeling rather irritated that the gray-haired man didn't realize that. You'd think that he would, since the power of aura was common knowledge to just about everybody.

"I can see it too" Kieran said, growing pale. In addition to his new pale skin tone, he also looked embarrassed, as if he had just told us too much and was wishing to retract one or more of the statements he had just made.

Before I could ask why Kieran could see aura, or why he saw fit to tell us this, he ran out of the room like someone who had just been caught in a shameful act.

Michelle, Malcolm, and I all looked at each other, before staring once again at the sleeping Zoroark in the hospital bed.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The last time I had passed out, as they were taking an insane amount of blood out of me, I had thought that I might never come to again. As much as I didn't know _everything_ about Team Rocket, I did know that when they tried to kill Pokemon, they didn't mess around. I should have been dead.

I entered a strange world of dreams. Not normal dreams, mind you. More like the kind of dreams you have when your temperature is over 100, and you're sweating all night. These weren't lucid dreams, and I didn't remember passing out. Was this the afterlife?

If so, this was my idea of hell, for sure. Blackness, with shapes in all colors of the rainbow materializing in and out of the darkness, was the pattern. It looked not unlike something you'd imagine from after Alice fell down the rabbit hole, or after Veronika decided to die. Yep, this could be purgatory. That was entirely possible.

Instead, I woke up to the sight of my slightly-emaciated body lying in what appeared to be a hospital bed. I was still very hungry, to the point that I could have won Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (Zoroarks can burn as much as 9,000 calories a day, since they do a lot of running around and are large in size). Of course, I probably wouldn't be able to eat them that quickly, since I was also feeling extremely weak. I doubted that I could have even gotten out of the bed, not least because I had an IV in my left arm, right below a bandage.

I remembered why I was here, or rather, what had happened before I got here. I'd been chained down in Team Rocket's headquarters, them having taken my blood (an insane amount, mind you), in order to figure out why I had turned into a Zoroark, exactly the question that everyone else wanted answered as well.

I wondered if they had figured it out now, and were looking for the right opportunity to take me back. It had, of course, been largely my own fault for getting kidnapped. All I had had to do was not tackle the Team Rocket grunts, and I would have probably been safe. I'd be kicking myself for a while.

Looking around, I saw that I was in a hospital room within a Pokemon center. In addition to the normal doctors and nurses, my younger sister was dozing in a chair next to my bedside, along with Samuel. Although, I was surprised to see another person there.

Eric Owsley, the man who had taught me illusions, had been given what looked like a yoga mat to sleep on. He still wore a slightly militaristic expression, even as he lay prone on the floor. If sleep could not take away that type of demeanor, what could?

 _Why is Eric here?_ I thought. _Did they enlist his help to rescue me?_

If so, I was quite grateful, but I still didn't see why he had decided to appear out of nowhere. Truth be told, the sight of Eric kind of reminded me of when we had been attacked by Kieran on top of the hill. Although we were now allies, the memory made me reconsider our alliance. Was Kieran Mortimer really trustworthy, or was he going to turn his back on us at the earliest opportunity?

I decided to voice my concerns aloud. "Why is Eric here, Michelle?" I rasped, realizing just how dry my throat was. Clearly, I had been asleep for some time.

My younger sister woke up, realizing that I was awake as well. "Oh, Lucas, you're up. Good. What was it you were asking me, again?" she asked, with a slightly confused expression on her face.

I tried not to sound frustrated, even though I _was_ frustrated to a small degree. "Why is Eric here? I honestly thought we were going to be done with him once I'd learned my illusions".

Michelle elbowed Samuel, jerking the Lucario awake. "Why did you wake me up?" he said, using aura.

The "voice" of a Lucario, when used via aura, sounded kind of like a robot or a computer. Clearly, however, he was angry at my sister for waking him up.

I spotted a clock nearby and saw that it was about 5:10 AM. Of course, they would be sleeping at this time; it was kind of an ungodly hour, although it wasn't unheard of me to get up this early on occasion.

"To answer your question, Lucas", said Michelle, "he just came out of nowhere. Somehow, he found us at this Pokemon center, and he told us he was going to help us save you. We trusted him, because we didn't see that much of a choice. He was telling the truth".

I gestured to the IV drip. "How long do I have to stay here?" I asked. "Where are we?"

"Rocket, Maine" Samuel said. "Just a few miles away from the Team Rocket fortress. As for how long you're going to stay here, they plan to release you sometime tomorrow".

 _Sometime tomorrow._ There was still another day that they could get to me, unless we managed to get away before they became aware of where we were.

"How did you guys save me?" I asked. Looking at my wrists, I saw that they were bandaged, including a patch of bandages with an unjustifiably large size for only having one IV on my left wrist. Why, exactly, had I been bandaged?

"We ran into the fortress and discovered you in your cell. Eric's Mesprit teleported us out of there, and the doctors had to cut away your chains. Sorry for giving you so many details, I know you must be tired". All of that was Samuel's monologue.

"I'm not tired" I said. "How long have I been sleeping for? It has to have been close to a day".

"Maybe it was" Michelle said. "We know that you were unconscious when we got into the cell, so at least eighteen hours or so. Are you thirsty?"

I nodded. My mouth really did feel like sandpaper, or the part of a beach that is farthest away from the ocean. In other words, I was parched.

"You probably should drink" Samuel said, filling a paper cup from the bubbler on the other side of the room. He helped me sit up in order to drink it. "The faster they are convinced you are healthy, the faster you can get out of here".

Michelle nodded. "They were waiting until you woke up until we decided on where we would go next. The way it was going, we didn't want to take any unnecessary risks, with you being unconscious. We wanted to involve your intellect in the decision".

I felt praised by that. It wasn't often that someone told me that I had an impressive intellect, but I took it as a compliment. Sometimes, I don't pick up on the proper meanings of words said by others, but that's what can come with being a geek in general. Still, I got the feeling that the implications of what Michelle was saying were good.

"What about the flower?" I asked, my vocal cords not hurting so much when I spoke now that I had gotten some water in by mouth. I was also feeling a bit more energetic, now that I had recalled exactly _what_ our whole quest had been before I had been abducted by Team Rocket. The whole reason I had been kidnapped in the first place was because we had gone to look for the flower.

"It's currently in that jar behind your IV stand" Samuel said, clearly trying not to laugh. "Somehow, it's still there, and the doctors didn't try to get rid of it. There must be some kind of magic to it, because of that".

"Plus, you'd think that it would just wilt from being handled so much" I said. "But, no, it's still there".

Samuel and Michelle looked at each other. "I think we'd better tell Eric that you're awake" my sister said. "He'll have plenty to talk with you about".

That was a little ominous to me, I thought as I sank back down into the bed. I was careful not to let my claws tear the sheets to shreds, because that was a real risk when you were a Zoroark.

I had thought that, once we had been able to retrieve the flower, the rest of the quest would have been simple. We would have been able to continue on our way, finding out the next place we needed to head to.

Instead, this was not the case at all. I'd almost gotten killed by Team Rocket, and it was only by sheer dumb luck that I had been rescued. I was still alive, more from other people's successes than my own. All I had had to do was endure a treadmill test, getting a lot of blood taken from my body, and getting rescued by a man with a Mesprit.

And to think that it was only Friday. Only a few days since I had been back in school back in Hanover, New Hampshire. So much had happened since then, so much had changed, that I had a hard time deciding what to think about it.

I couldn't go back to sleep. Nor could I reach for the flower without disturbing the drip, so I just waited for Eric to come in. Then, things would hopefully be made more clear. I'm not one who likes going through a day without a plan. I prefer being told, "Okay, Lucas. We're going to do this, and then we're going to do this, and then we're going to do this". I like knowing what to expect.

Unfortunately, I had been thrust into a situation in which there was no way to know what to expect.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

A day later, my brother was released from the medical area of the Pokemon center with instructions to take it easy for a little while. Exactly what constituted a "little while" was not made clear, and so we wanted him to be careful.

"Ah, our Comrade has finally been discharged from the Hospital!" said Garfield, raising his arm in a pose that was reminiscent of a knight, throwing up their sword in celebration of a battle they had just claimed victory in.

"That's right" Lucas said, walking slowly. I could tell that, although he had been rehydrated, and his bandages had been taken off, he was still feeling pretty weak. Maybe it had been a good idea for him to take it easy, after all.

We walked along the avenue outside of the Pokemon center. We didn't want to attract any more attention than necessary, although, again, necessary was probably a pretty high amount, particularly when you considered the fact that Lucas was a Zoroark, and we also had a large, burly Irish guy, a Lucario that had once been a human, a hyperactive Zorua, a militaristic middle-aged man (if you could call someone who was 34 middle-aged), and, of course, a normal human teenaged girl. We were quite a group, and asking not to attract attention would, in this scenario, be like the kettle asking not to be black. It just didn't work that way.

Kieran whistled, calling a Crobat down to the ground. This Crobat seemed to be the same one that we had taken from our house back in Hanover (which had now been destroyed) to the Zoroark village up in Quebec.

The reason I could be sure of this was because the safety harnesses were still attached to its back, making it very easy to see that it was indeed the same one. We climbed onto its back and buckled up. It really was lucky that we had the harnesses, because Lucas still looked so weak that he might not have been able to hold on. In fact, he was so exhausted that he fell asleep as soon as we were in the air. I knew that he had to have been as tired as hell if it was possible for that to happen in the air, since I knew that Lucas wasn't a fan of heights. Even so, he was insulated by the fact that Garfield was behind him, and Eric was in front of him. The two biggest guys in our group were surrounding him, preventing him from falling off.

Lucas woke from his nap as soon as we landed in Cape Elizabeth. That was where we were going to be staying next, since it was a town with a lot of police officers, and far away from any Team Rocket bases, and yet still close enough that they wouldn't be expecting us to go there. Hiding in plain sight; that was our strategy.

We left Crobat to fly wherever he wanted, and then we headed into the nearest Pokemon center. Lucas still seemed tired, but he was still clutching the flower, which he had taken with him as we left the one in Rocket. There was a strong possibility that the flower was magical, but we did not want to take any risks. Even as he had slept, it had remained firmly entrenched in his paw; maybe he had never let it go.

* * *

"So", Lucas said once we were stretched out on our beds in the Cape Elizabeth Pokemon center, "what happens now? Should we ask the flower? Is _ask_ even the right word to use with what we're talking about?"

"I guess that using the flower is as good an idea as any" Kieran replied. The gray-haired man looked paler than usual today. Maybe, if I had been able to pick up on aura, I would have seen why he looked this way. Chances were, this journey was taking a toll on him.

There had to be a reason that he seemed so tired, though. He was such a young man, only 24 years old, that he couldn't possibly be tired due to his age. There was just no way.

"I suppose we should use the flower, then" Garfield said. Now that all seven of us were in a room together, I was really appreciating the fact that we were all able to talk with one another. When Lucas was in the hospital after being rescued from the clutches of Team Rocket, only four of us had been allowed to visit him at a time, meaning that only five out of the group of seven would be able to discuss our plans.

Now, it wasn't like that. The room at the Pokemon center in Cape Elizabeth had eight beds. On one side were Lucas, Samuel, Garfield, and Malcolm, in that order, while I was in between Eric and Kieran on the other side. We could talk whenever we wanted, about whatever we wanted.

"Here's the flower" said Malcolm, pointing to the jar by Lucas's bedside. "It was on the cabinet by your bed in the hospital. Shall I do the honors?"

"Okay" said Samuel, stretching his arms. He always had to be careful not to pulverize something on accident with his spikes, although he'd had plenty of time to practice with that. "Go and get the flower, Malcolm".

The jar the flower was in always seemed to change when it was indoors. In keeping with the hospital theme, it looked like a medicine bottle, not something that would look out of place in the medical wing of a Pokemon center. Here, however, it looked like an ordinary jar that one might keep flowers in. Nothing too unusual.

Malcolm, as he reached out a paw to collect the flower, accidentally let it go too far down. The jar tipped, before releasing the flower and dropping onto the floor, missing Malcolm's head by two inches.

The jar shattered with a rumble that made the whole room look like the "Surrender" music video by Billy Talent. Luckily, nothing else fell to the ground, but Samuel put his paws over his head. Lucas did the same, not wishing to end up in hospital again so soon.

"MALCOLM!" I yelled. "Why not be more careful?"

He looked back at me. "I'm sorry, Michelle. It wasn't on purpose. You forgive me, right?"

I had a hard time doing so, but I decided that I was going to let it go. The flower, evidently, _was_ magical, because of the fact that it was now in a jar. And yet, I was sure that, as Lucas had been clutching it in the air, it hadn't been in a jar. I of course couldn't be a hundred percent certain that we weren't in the matrix right now, but I was as sure as I could be that I wasn't being delusional about this. So, maybe 99.9999%.

Malcolm stared at the flower for a few seconds. "It says that we should go to New York City. Somewhere in Central Park, that's where we'll find the next flower. This really is like a treasure hunt!"

Indeed, it _was_ kind of like a treasure hunt. I reminded myself that this was probably the only reason Malcolm Greenlake was in it at all, just for the adventure.

Could we really trust the little scamp?

* * *

 **GARFIELD'S POV**

Later that evening, myself and all of my fellow Adventurers were eating the food that we had ordered from the cafeteria in the Pokemon center. It was a good thing, since Lucas was absolutely ravenous, as were the rest of us.

"Hospital food sucks, guys. It's pretty awesome to eat real food again" he said, putting his feet up on the rails at the end of the bed. He was slurping his udon noodles, some of which were getting all over his stomach. I decided not to mention that to Lucas, since I didn't want to embarrass him.

"Just glad we rescued you" I said. "Without you, I don't know how our Quest would have gone, or if it would have been able to continue at all. You were always our first priority".

Lucas held out his arms as if embracing someone in a hug. "I'm very grateful for that. And this food really rocks, too. Thanks for saving me".

"Just don't tackle any more Team Rocket members, Lucas" Michelle said, clearly trying not to giggle. In my opinion, this was no laughing matter, because the fact remained that, had Lucas not actively gone after Jessie, we would not have ended up in this situation. Even so, I hoped we could get past this. Once Lucas had gotten more of his strength back, we could head down to Central Park in New York City.

Apparently, that was where we would find the next flower. It was entirely possible that Malcolm could have been lying about what the flower had "said" to him, but why would he have been? There was seemingly no purpose to the potential deception, and, in general, I'm not one to accuse a Comrade of lying. Particularly when that Comrade is a naive, young, energetic Zorua.

I mean, Malcolm Greenlake was such a cute guy, there was probably no way he was doing this. They always said, however, to be careful not to judge a book by its cover. That was one mistake that I very much did _not_ want to make, because if I did make that mistake in this case, I would either be dead or spend the rest of my life regretting it. Neither option was good.

I don't know how long we sat there, content to eat our yaki udon noodles, pizza, and apple pie, all of which we had ordered from the Pokemon center cafeteria. Eventually, however, all of us had eaten our fill, and we got some clothes from the cabinets underneath our beds. (The Pokemon center we were staying at provided clothing for an extra fee, a price that Eric had been more than willing to field).

At least, those of us who could actually _wear_ clothes did. For the most part, I just slept in boxer shorts, as did Eric. Kieran, on the other hand, usually did wear pajamas to bed, something that I found weird. Weren't pajamas only for young children, not twenty-something men?

Eventually, Kieran's facial expression became somber. "There's something I have to tell you guys".

"What is it?" Lucas asked.

Kieran Mortimer stared right into the soul of Lucas London, with a look as intense as a boxer staring down his opponent. "I'm dying".


	17. The Flower In A Field Of Weeds

**Here we go! We're past 80,000 words, and I'm confident that this will be a story that will make it over 100K. If so, that would put me in an elite group among Pokemon fanfictions. Not only will I be proud of this accomplishment, but I hope that this will gain me some more recognition. It's not that many people who are in this group, after all.**

 _Answer: As record45 told me her favorite scene was_ _this, I also have come to love the first attempt at going for the flower. I also like how the flower has turned up in the hospital in the last chapter; that's one of my favorite scenes as well. Really, I love ending scenes/chapters with characters falling unconscious, because I see it as a good way to build tension._

 _Question: Do you enjoy reading/writing action scenes or non-action scenes more? Do you find battles boring, I guess is what I am trying to say._

 **In any case, I bring you another chapter. And we have entered the month of June as well (or we will be tomorrow), which is pretty awesome, since this is the month I was born in.**

 **One thing: Even though I have been to New York City twice in my life (my sister goes down there far more often, since she's really into theater), I don't really know the whole layout of it. One of my friends from summer camp gave me a tour (he lives down there), and I felt completely out of my element.**

* * *

 **GARFIELD'S POV**

Man. That was pretty shocking.

I had always thought that Kieran was going to be the kind of person who would absolutely refuse, point blank, to tell you anything about himself. It would be one thing to reveal a potentially embarrassing secret or moment from your past, but revealing that you were _dying?_ Man, that took guts.

The reaction was almost immediate. Lucas sat up on his bed, eyes as wide as dinner plates, at least the type of dinner plates that they give you at restaurants to put your appetizer bread on. Michelle looked as though she was about to sob, and Malcolm flat-out keeled over. Clearly, the young Zorua was fine, because he got up right afterwards, rubbing his head. He hadn't completely fainted, so I didn't think he had to see the doctor about it.

"So...what did you just say?" Eric asked. Clearly, he was just trying to avoid the topic, pretend that he had never heard it.

"It seems like a disservice to have hidden it from you guys for so long, but it really is true. I'm fucking dying" Kieran said, almost in a taunting tone. "And I really do think that you guys deserve to know that".

"How do you know you're dying?" Malcolm asked incredulously. "None of us can predict the future".

I wanted to explain to Malcolm that there were other ways of dying besides in battle. Perhaps of illness...then again, he was just a kid. Ten years old, apparently. And, while I would have thought that this would be an old enough age to comprehend the reality of diseases being causes of death, I might have been wrong on that.

"A few years ago", Kieran said, "my parents took me to the hospital to get an EKG test".

"Which one is that?" the young Zorua asked. "Is that the one where they put tubes in your arm?"

"No" the dying man explained. "What they do is, they sit you down in a chair and put all these wires on your chest and arms. It makes you look like a huge science experiment".

"That's pretty cool" Malcolm said.

"It's not cool when you consider what it's for" Eric said. "It's to measure the electrical activity of your heart, to make sure that you don't have a heart condition or anything. Can you explain what it is, Kieran, that you had?"

"Wait…", Michelle began, "...did you know?"

"No. But it does sound like Kieran here had some kind of heart condition".

" _Have,_ Eric Owsley. I still do have it, and my life expectancy is only twenty-five years old. And I'm 24 right now; my birthday is on December 17. That's not a long time; I might only have a few months left to live".

"Sorry to hear that" said Lucas. "Is there anything you can do? What condition is it?"

"It's called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy" said Kieran. "It means that my heart muscle is thicker than most, which is a big problem. Like I said, it's not curable, and it's slowly killing me".

"You don't act like it" Lucas said. "You sound pretty healthy to me".

Kieran laughed sadly. "Some days are my good days. Some are my bad days. Lately, though, I've been having a lot of good days. I wonder, how long can that last before the final spiral downwards? I try not to think that way, but it can be hard when you're aware of your impending death".

"You can still complete the quest with us, right?" Malcolm asked.

The dying man looked at the exuberant young Zorua, a determined expression on his face. "I'm going to complete this quest if it kills me. There's just too much at stake".

The knowledge that Kiean Mortimer was terminally ill was depressing, but it was also alarming. It told me that he had nothing to lose, since he was going to be dead in a few months, most likely. If that was the case, what prevented him from betraying us, figuring that he wouldn't have to live with the consequences too much longer?

The fact remained, however, that we had trusted him up until this point to help us, and I didn't see why that would have changed. After all, he'd still been sick even before he had told us that. And, he'd helped us rescue Lucas from Team Rocket's clutches. Why would he go through all of this trouble, only to end up turning on us and killing us at the very end?

Even so, I had a hard time getting to sleep that night. I was constantly thinking about possibilities as to why Kieran would be so willing to trust us with this information. I had been made aware by Lucas, Michelle, Samuel, and Malcolm, back when the former was staying in the hospital part of the Pokemon center, that Kieran had attacked them once before. Why would he not do that again?

The truth was, I didn't have much of an answer to that. However, my dwelling on these thoughts led to yet another vision of the past that night.

* * *

 _Over the next week, I did various odd jobs around the small town of Skylock. It was a very tight-knit community, but, when I was given questions about where I was from, or my background in general, I refused to answer them._

 _The reason for this was, I didn't trust people too much. I'm one of those who tends to be skeptical of people I have never met before, along with generally preferring to keep much of my identity a secret. That's just another part of my personality._

 _For the most part, except when I was directly asked, I never even revealed my name. The only things I really needed it for was when I was going to eat at the restaurant, or for the hotel I was staying at. I got small amounts of money for the jobs I took up, which is enough to support yourself if you live in a hotel and don't have too many belongings to speak of._

 _Instead of buying a gym membership, something I would have had a very difficult time affording, I went on jogs along the harbor. I was quickly becoming a member of the community, albeit reluctantly, and I was recognized by a few people as Garfield O'Shannon. For most people, however, this was a name that they did not know I had._

 _One day, however, I was on my typical morning jog when I saw a van pull up in front of me. It was a white van, which already meant that I was inclined to be suspicious. However, I became more suspicious still once I saw who was inside it._

 _Black uniforms with the eighteenth letter of the English alphabet stenciled in red. In addition, the two young men both held Pokeballs in their hands. Which could only mean one thing. Team Rocket._

 _Of course, I'd heard of the evil organization. I had heard that there was a base near Penobscot Bay, and, while this was more of a Mid Coast section of Maine, the fact remained that it wouldn't have been too long of a drive from a town like Camden._

 _One of the young men recited the Team Rocket slogan, albeit excluding the part about Meowth. It wasn't the traditional trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth. Their name tags read TODD and RICH, so it was easy to assume that those were their names._

" _Should we look for...which type, again?" Todd asked. He had a smug grin on his face, which made me like him even less than I already had._

 _I don't like to admit this, since it's a little embarrassing, but I ran. I ran so far away, all the way to the farmer's market that was just setting up for the day in a park by the sea. I looked back to see that Rich and Todd had followed me. I wished that I could have gotten rid of them, because they were jeering the whole way, while coming up with plans to steal some rare Pokemon._

 _Rich held out his Pokeball once the three of us had reached the market. "Houndoom, tear this guy apart!"_

 _I froze in place as the large, antelope-like Pokemon emerged in a beam of light from its Pokeball. A second later, I realized that I shouldn't be doing that. I should be doing something, because I didn't want anyone in the marketplace to get hurt._

 _The Houndoom began prancing through the farmer's market, upsetting a wheelbarrow full of apples. Before I could do anything to try and stop the destruction that was being wrecked upon this small-town farmer's market, a middle-aged woman screamed as Houndoom tore through her shopping cart full of watermelons. This was not good. I had to stop it quickly._

 _Rich was within striking distance. He was probably too focused with watching Houndoom prance through a pile of peaches to care that I was about to hit him in the head._

 _With one blow, the young man had fallen over backwards into a stack of muffins on a table, sending both to the ground._

" _NO!" Todd yelled. "You're going to pay for this, you little_ _ **fucker**_ _!"_

 _It was ironic that he called me little, since Todd had to be several inches shorter than me. The other Team Rocket grunt threw his Pokeball on the ground, which resulted in a Mightyena exiting._

 _Mightyena bared its fangs before charging directly at me. I ran right out of the way, stepping over the unconscious Rich, as well as the tall man behind the muffins. An upset bottle of Sprite Zero lay on the ground, which was pouring onto Rich's pants, making it look as though he had had an accident. I tried not to snicker at that._

 _Mightyena began causing a ruckus along with Houndoom, sending carrots, melons, apples, and berries crashing towards the ground. It was clear that this scene was not going to be met with leniency by the police, once they came. It wasn't often that Pokemon attacked humans like this; one of the key purposes of battling, besides being a spectator sport, was so that Pokemon would be less likely to get bloodthirsty and attack humans like this._

 _Here, a farmer's market was being disturbed, and all because of these two Team Rocket grunts._

 _Houndoom was munching on an apple pie that had been sent clattering to the ground, while Mightyena was still standing next to the upset table full of muffins. The man behind the counter had been unable to move out of the way as Mightyena took a large chunk out of his leg. Blood was flowing all over his khaki pants, and I knew that he needed help, fast. Human bodies were not nearly as durable as those of Pokemon._

 _I kicked Mightyena in the ribs, not feeling any remorse for it. After all, it hadn't had to attack those innocent Civilians that way; it really hadn't. The way things had been going, there had been no other way. I had_ had _to attack the Team Rocket grunts, or else things would not have worked out at all. Plenty more people would have gotten hurt, although the farmer's market would have been beyond saving._

 _I had to get out of there. The police might think that I had been involved with Team Rocket, helping them try and catch valuable Pokemon. I didn't want to stay here with those suspicions against me. I wasn't in the mood to undergo a heavy amount of questioning._

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

The next morning, I felt much stronger still. Clearly, sleeping in a normal Pokemon center bed had helped to do the trick, as well as eating real food for a change. I'd gotten nothing to eat at the Team Rocket headquarters, and that had been a hellish experience. Hopefully, I would never have to go through anything like that ever again.

We ordered breakfast from the cafeteria, and I was definitely enjoying the French toast with strawberries. I looked across the room and saw that Kieran was looking unusually relaxed for someone who had just come out as being terminally ill. That was definitely not a light revelation to give.

In addition, the fact was that I was nervous myself. On one hand, the farther away we went from the headquarters of Team Rocket, or rather the Maine branch (since there were branches of Team Rocket all over the country, and indeed the world), the safer I felt. Even though I had been unconscious when I was rescued, and not able to appreciate what lengths were gone to in order to make that possible, I'd been told that, even with everything that Eric, Garfield, and the four comrades I already had had done, it was a little too easy to rescue me. It's possible that they could have been _intending_ to let me go even if they hadn't come to save me. Or, possibly the more likely scenario, they were once again going after us. We'd definitely have to be careful about that.

On the other hand, we were heading down to New York City. I'm not one who likes large crowds, and going to places like Times Square can be absolute hell for me. In this case, however, we might not have a choice. And, if we were forced to navigate through enormous throngs of people, at least I had gotten the chance to recover first. I was more than willing to deal with this.

As soon as we had gotten out of the Pokemon center, Kieran called a Crobat in once again, which already had harnesses with it. This led me to believe that it was probably the same Crobat the whole time.

 _Was_ Kieran some sort of Pokemon whisperer? What if Arceus himself had granted Kieran that ability, but at a high cost...a _very_ high cost? It's said that God works in mysterious ways, so surely Arceus would as well.

Now that he had told us more about his past, it made more sense that he had a special affinity for Poison types. It was as though there was literally poison in his body, which kind of was the case, since he was terminally ill. With that, it wouldn't be surprising that he felt a special bond towards them.

We climbed onto the Crobat and harnessed ourselves in. I didn't ask Eric why we could not have simply teleported with Mesprit, but I supposed he had his reasons. I wasn't going to question him right now, simply because I had so many other things on my mind.

As we flew southwest over New England, I felt the wind in my giant red ponytail once again. It was quite something, and flying without worrying about falling was definitely one of the most exhilarating feelings that it was possible to have. I may or may not have been holding my arms above my head like someone having a good time on a roller coaster.

"Where are we going in New York City?" Michelle asked Eric as we flew further southwest, to which Eric replied, "Central Park". I'd never been to NYC before, and so I didn't really know what to expect. Hopefully, it would be fairly interesting, while not too intimidating.

I saw the woods down below and wondered where the ruins of my house were. This wasn't easy to see, since we were roughly three or four thousand feet above the ground. I could have asked Samuel, since Lucarios could see even better than Zoroarks, but I didn't want to reopen old wounds.

I had no idea where my father was living now. There was no way that the government would allow him to stay in our old house, now that it had been pretty much destroyed by the Fire and Poison armies. Maybe he had even taken his own life, not wanting to live without my mother. From what I had seen, they had had a pretty great marriage, if my relationship with them had been less than happy.

After what must have been an hour and a half of being stuck in my own thoughts, I saw the water below me. I knew that it had to be Long Island Sound, and I now knew with certainty that we were getting close. The beauty of the entire place, from this high up, was difficult to comprehend. We were a few weeks into September at this point, and a good amount of leaves were starting to change colors. Even from this height, it was clear to see that.

"Are we getting close?" Malcolm asked. I could tell that he was feeling anxious to get moving, especially since his harness was jingling a lot, making a noise that could be heard over the wind.

"Yes, we are" Eric replied. "Central Park is right in the middle of Manhattan. We're going to land in a nearby alleyway, and then walk in there. And then, Lucas, are you going to see if you feel the tug?"

Normally, I can zone out to a decent degree when I'm doing something as thrilling as riding a Crobat 3,000 feet above Long Island Sound. It's entirely different when my name is mentioned. Whenever someone drops my name in a conversation, it's very easy for me to jump into the conversation, regardless of whether or not it is about me.

I realized what Eric was saying. "Yeah, I'll try to feel the tug towards the flower once we reach the ground. It's a bit weird that I'm the _flower whisperer_ of this group, though, don't you think?"  
Samuel chuckled. "Well, you tell me. I still remember the first attempt at getting the first flower".

It was shocking to look back and realize that our first go at the purple flower had been only eight days ago. It felt like it could have been eight lifetimes, what with everything that had changed. Being made fun of to no small degree, my house getting destroyed, the start of our quest, getting kidnapped by Team Rocket, getting my blood taken, the caffeine and treadmill, recovering in the Pokemon center, and now flying down to New York City.

And all of this had happened in a little more than a week.

* * *

After another half hour, we landed just outside of Central Park. It was a miracle that Crobat had managed to carry all seven of us at once, but we had made it into an alleyway all the same.

"So, where in Central Park are we going?" Malcolm asked. "I've never been to New York City! Always stuck in that village in Quebec, until now".

"That depends" Kieran said. "Can Lucas feel the tug towards the orange flower? Or are we completely blind going into this?"

I looked at the young man. Now that I knew he was dying, there were some signs visible on the outside that he was tired. His hair was hanging loosely, and it was clear that he didn't make too much effort to brush it. In addition, there were dark purple circles under his eyes that, if you were looking for them, were more than easy to spot. Kieran Mortimer did not look like a picture of health.

On the other hand, I'm sure that I didn't, either. My large red ponytail had been whipped around a lot by the wind, and I looked kind of like a long-haired hippie from a rock band. Of course, if that long-haired hippie had been a Zoroark.

However, that wasn't my main concern. "I do feel the tug" I said. "I can lead you there, but would it be a good idea to use an illusion right now?"

Eric nodded. "Yes" he said. "Why don't you imagine that you're a human, and you lead us into the park. Be careful not to give any verbal cues, because that breaks the illusion".

I hadn't used illusions in a while, eight whole days. Based on that, you might think that it would be tough to remember, having only done it once. However, I was more prepared than you might have thought.

Somehow, having Eric Owsley, the man who had taught me this skill, around at the tame made it easier. I envisioned my body becoming smaller, and I painted an illusion of my usual appearance over my current Zoroark body. I imagined slightly long hair, kind of between a lion's mane and the style New Englanders wore during colonial times. Unlike the 1700s haircut, I was taking the ponytail out and replacing it with hair that made it halfway down my neck.

I imagined the same steel blue eyes, golden brown hair, tall body that I had had my whole life. I changed the color of my skin from black to Caucasian, and imagined myself changing form.

I still felt as large as usual, but looking back down at my body confirmed that I had turned back into Lucas London, or at least Lucas London's human form.

I would wave back at them, show them the way, but I knew that I could not speak, for opening my mouth in order to talk would also ruin my illusion. I figured that a large Zoroark would be a distraction in such a major city, and I didn't want to cause any unnecessary traffic accidents...not that a traffic accident was ever _necessary._ Therefore, I should keep quiet. That was my line of reasoning.

I reached for the tug and felt it pulling once again on my invisible harness. Indeed, it was telling me exactly where to go. Even though it was not necessarily a pleasant sensation, I knew that it was a helpful one. Without it, we would have been completely and utterly lost.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

Lucas led us through the alleyway and into a more open area, one where you felt like you could see the sky more. I definitely felt more comfortable and happier here, like I had just gotten out of a burning desert and saw an oasis right in front of me.

It was hard to remind myself that the young man we were tailing was the one that had once been a Zoroark. Indeed, I had become so used to Lucas being a Pokemon that it was difficult to recognize him once he had become a human again. It just wasn't something I had an easy time seeing.

We were led across the street and into Central Park. In the crisp air of early autumn, some of the trees were turning color. Up in Quebec, in the Zoroark village, most of the trees had been evergreen, so you really didn't see as much of it.

Once in the park, I felt even more like a chicken with my head cut off. It didn't help that I'd never been to Central Park.

My family, my _biological_ family (I was starting to think of this group more and more like family to me), had been fairly poor, and my parents were divorced, so we had never had enough money for any serious type of travel. Up until when we'd gone up to Quebec, I'd never been outside of New England. When we had gone to get passports, it had been kind of a joke.

Looking backwards, I could tell that the rest of the group seemed just as confused as I did. Meanwhile, Lucas was showing us the way, walking silently in a manner you would imagine a robot would, had the robot been as limber as a human.

Eventually, we arrived in what looked like a small garden. In the middle of it was a flower in a dull orange color, hidden among what looked like a lot of weeds. I had little doubt that this was it.

We had found the second flower. There was only one question remaining: Where would it ask us to go next?

* * *

 **A pretty short chapter, but the next one will be longer, I promise. I hope that you have enjoyed the story thus far, and will rate and review it.**

 **Also, I will go back to releasing the chapters when they are finished. In exchange, I will look over them for one day once they are done. And, do you want a stat check?**

Reviews 87 Followers 44 Favorites 31 Communities 5 Views 6,738, Traffic Graph

 **Until then, SnowLucario out.**


	18. The Final Step

**Summer is finally creeping over New England at long last. At the same time, I'm constantly at loggerheads with my mother over...ah, never mind. What else is there to say?**

 **Although, we are nearing the climax of this story. Probably 115,000 words or so will be the total once all is said and done.**

 _Answer: My philosophy is that battles are boring, but consequence isn't. What I mean by that is, if someone gets severely injured in a battle, I find that aspect interesting for some reason, while I find the battle itself boring. I'm really not sure why._

 _Question: What is your favorite sport/physical exercise to take part in?_

 **In other news...President Trump has left the Paris climate deal. At least, he's stated officially that he is leaving. Essentially, we're going to be a rogue nation, just like North Korea. That's not exactly a good thing for the U.S. economy. And I listened to the whole speech on YouTube, too. I highly recommend doing so.**

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

Somehow, I got the feeling that finding the second flower shouldn't be so easy.

After all, although I hadn't been present the first time that Lucas and Samuel had gone for the first flower, the former had gotten hit by the full force of a Bellossom colony's Sleep moves. The second time, once we had all gotten the Insomnia blessing, we'd been successful, only to end up with Lucas kidnapped by Team Rocket. That had been quite a setback.

Based on that, I was expecting something at least as bad to happen to us this time. There was no way that this group could manage to make it through here _that_ easily. And, for that matter, it had been too easy to rescue Lucas London. Was Team Rocket still after us? I didn't see why they wouldn't be; I had always sensed that it had been far too easy to save Lucas.

Lucas made his way through the weeds, trampling over them. I could tell that a few of them might be scratching his legs, but he couldn't make any noise, because he didn't want to break the illusion by talking.

As soon as he picked up the Tahiti Gold flower, the one with the color that was approximately #ED7527, I felt something change. It wasn't too noticeable at first, but it slowly became more and more so. And it was quite a weird sensation.

Somehow, it was like we were all standing under a cleansing waterfall, one that washed away the past. It wasn't like I was forgetting things, more like we were letting go of all the baggage from the physical world. Was this some supernatural event that had never been recorded?

Really, it was no wonder that so many world religions involved standing under a waterfall as a cleansing ritual. I really did feel like I was letting go of all of the baggage that I had had before. Maybe even my terminal illness was going away, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. I'd always learned that, if you let your hopes get too high, that left you vulnerable to being extremely disappointed when they ended up coming crashing down.

In addition to washing away the demons of the past, which it at least _felt_ like it was doing, it seemed that the flower was washing away the illusions. When I next looked at Lucas, I saw that he was once again a Zoroark. Of course, he had always _been_ a Zoroark ever since his transformation, but he now looked like one once again.

The next thing I saw was that Central Park had disappeared.

Yes, I really do mean it. We were no longer in the middle of Manhattan; rather, we seemed to be in some alternate dimension. That might sound kind of like something you would see in a sci-fi novel, or movie, but this was really what happened.

I was still standing in the middle of our group of seven, in what looked like a hexagonal formation. Right in front of me was Lucas London, and clockwise from there were Samuel, Eric, Garfield, Malcolm, and Michelle. We were all standing on a patch of land, the same patch of land that we'd been on previously.

However, the surroundings were different. Somehow, I could tell the exact hexadecimal colors of the vertical lines surrounding us, covering us in a sort of dome. The colors of both of the flowers, #854185 and #ED7527, as well as a third color, which I could tell was Lima (#81C41C). That was a pretty awesome color, but was it the color of the third flower? _Was_ there a third flower?

These vertical lines were surrounded by what looked like tens of thousands of tiny stars. It was like we were in a multicolored version of outer space, something that was pretty cool to see. Particularly when I was a little kid, I had been very interested in the cosmos, and what lay beyond the planet Earth. Now, as I was getting closer and closer to losing my battle with HCM, it was like I was getting to live out my dream in my last weeks of life.

And yes, I could tell that I was within weeks of passing away. Somehow, everything seemed clearer now. I only had a few weeks to live, and yet I wasn't that bothered by it. It felt as though, somehow, the entire universe was in order.

We had found the orange flower, and it was playing into some divine plan. At least, that was what it felt like. It could have been something completely different, maybe just something in my own mind. That was always possible.

And the, from the sky, there descended something highly unusual. It wasn't something that we had seen before, and the sight of it nearly caused me to faint. For a few terrifying seconds, as I stood in the center of the circle with the others, I thought that my time might just have come.

But, as I started to get ahold of my panic, I looked at the creature that had just come right in front of us.

It was a Bellossom, or at least a creature that seemed to be in the shape of one. The only difference between this and a regular Bellossom, however, was that the reeds that made up its "skirt" were not green and yellow. Instead, they were orange and purple, the exact shades of orange and purple that comprised the flowers we had risked so much to get.

Well, at least the first one. The second one, not so much. We'd pretty much only had to fly down here, get Lucas to turn into a human, and then get the flower. It was that easy. And that complicated.

"So...are you going to explain who you are?" Eric asked in a slightly militaristic manner. He didn't look too happy to see the Bellossom floating above us, which I guessed I understood. I wouldn't have been exactly thrilled by it, either, but that's beside the point.

"I am the Flower Queen" said the Bellossom. "I am meant to automatically be summoned once both of the flowers are collected".

"So there are only two?" Lucas asked. He was standing on his hind legs, his ponytail wagging like a dog's tail. I could tell that he was interested in what the Flower Queen was saying, because he sure seemed to be hanging on to every word.

"Yes" the Flower Queen said. "You see, I am only to be summoned when the world is in great danger. Evidently, this is the case. Team Jewel has been wrecking a lot of havoc lately".

"Team Jewel?" Samuel asked. "What kind of name is that?"

"It's an organization", said the Flower Queen, "that manufactures all sorts of articles of luxury clothing. The only difference is, there is a catch. Every single item they send out has a curse. Every rose has its thorn, if you will".

"What do you mean?" Michelle asked. "What sort of curses?"

"A bra was sold to a young woman very much like yourself, Michelle London, in Chicago. That girl, despite being only fourteen years old and in near-perfect health, died of a heart attack less than twenty-four hours later. They're chalking it up to a congenital heart defect that just never showed up, but it's not that. A pair of golden boxer shorts was made of Mightyena teeth that would cause a rash to appear all over the person's legs. Poison ivy, an autoimmune disorder...you humans have no shortage of explanations you use".

"And there's a huge necklace", said Lucas, "that turns people into Pokemon?"

"That's right" said the Flower Queen, shrugging.

"You haven't given us any _proof,_ though" Garfield said exasperatedly, holding up his fists. All I know for sure is that you are an oddly colored Bellossom. That's it".

The Flower Queen pursed her lips. "Garfield O'Shannon, what more proof should you need? I know all of your names, after all. I know that the world is in danger. And, most importantly, I know what your next objective is".

"Wait" Samuel said. "You're some kind of goddess of Bellossoms? If you're not a proper goddess, how can you help us?"

The Flower Queen laughed sadly. "I'm not omnimax, Samuel Cranmore. I'm omnibenevolent and _mostly_ omniscient. I'm not omnipotent, though. Therefore, the Problem Of Evil is not broken by me".

"I don't know much about philosophy" said Michelle. "What _is_ the Problem Of Evil?"

I cleared my throat. "It's a logical paradox. If there's a God that's all good, all powerful, and all knowing, why is there evil in the world? As far as I know, there is no good solution".

The Flower Queen laughed sadly once again. "There might be, but I wouldn't know that. I'm not Arceus, and even Arceus may or may not be constrained by a God. But that doesn't really matter. All I know is, you need to help save future humans from buying articles of clothing and becoming Pokemon, or getting a permanent rash on the legs, or dying. Right now, you are the best people to help stop it".

"Why did _I_ feel the tug, though?" Lucas asked. "Can you just take the invisible harness off of me? Already, you've caused me enough embarrassment about this. Plenty of people were laughing at me for the rest of the day after I was put to sleep by all of the Bellossom's sleeping spells. Why are flowers the way it works?"

The Flower Queen laughed for a third time, but this time it was a happy laugh, a more playful one.

"Oh, Lucas London. So young. So manly. So constrained by society. Someday, you're going to understand why the flower works the way it does. But, right now, you're going to keep the harness on".

"So there _has_ been a real harness on him this whole time?" Samuel asked incredulously.

The Flower Queen nodded. "Yes, although an invisible one. There is an invisible tether within it that will latch onto the nearby flower, and it will lead Lucas London to it. That's the way it works, and always has. For this is how I decreed it would be, in order for the world to be saved".

"So...what do we do now?" I asked. Hey, with limited time, it pays to be practical in terms of what questions you ask.

The Bellossom floating in front of us pulled twelve plane tickets seemingly out of thin air.

"Are those... _plane tickets?_ " Michelle asked. "That just makes no sense".

"The clothing factory is located in Alaska. More specifically, it's in Resurrection Bay, in the south-central part of the state. These plane tickets are from JFK to Seattle-Tacoma, and then from there to Fairbanks. After that, it should be no problem to get tickets on the Alaskan Railroad to get down to Anchorage. Then, you rent a car to get to Seward, and acquire a boat".

I couldn't help but let out a snort at the Flower Queen's directions. I had never even been to Alaska, and this sounded like such a long journey already that it made no sense not to teleport, if not for the limitations that Eric's Mesprit had. He had told me that it could only teleport within a certain distance. If you considered that, then yes, I could see why we were flying.

"Are we really flying to Alaska now?" Malcolm asked. "Isn't that, like, a really long way away?"

"Yes, it is" said Garfield. "Of course, if you'd rather let the necklace, as well as the other clothing produced in that factory, wreck havoc upon the world, be my guest".

Malcolm shrugged. "Good point".

"All right" the Flower Queen said. "One last thing; take this".

From out of thin air, the Bellossom produced what looked like an old-school video game controller, or a TV remote.

"Once you have reached Resurrection Bay, you will be able to use this in order to figure out the way to the field where the factory is. Remember, the color of the entrance to the factory is #81C41C".

I could tell that Eric was writing it down in his notepad. I supposed that he was the de facto leader of this quest now, something that I didn't particularly have a problem with. All I really cared about was getting this show on the road.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

After the Flower Queen had done something akin to snapping her fingers, we ended up back in the regular world, standing in a flowery field in the middle of Central Park. We hadn't been told this, but I was fairly certain that none of the people or Pokemon outside had perceived our absence as being for more than a split second. Isn't that usually how it is in time-travel novels?

"So...Alaska?" Samuel asked. "I've never been outside of New England before".

"Except for Canada, you mean?" I asked him. I felt the need to point out that Malcolm's village was in Quebec, and thus Samuel Cranmore _had_ been outside of the six-state region in the northeastern corner of the United States.

"Let's think through this rationally" Eric said. "I really do think that we should consider all of the merits of flying to Alaska. I know that it's a pretty long way. It's about one in the afternoon, too. When is the flight?"

Kieran looked at the tickets the Flower Queen had handed to us. "She promised us safe travel as far as Fairbanks, at least. I really think that we have nothing to lose; apparently, the world is at stake".

I knew that _Kieran_ had nothing to lose, since he was checking out of this life soon anyways. What I had no confirmation of was that the rest of us had nothing to lose. Why even trust this Flower Queen, anyway?

"Let's do it" Garfield said. "You know how much I like adventuring. And if the stakes are as high as the Flower Queen says they are, I don't see why we shouldn't do everything we can to succeed in this quest".

"Okay" Eric said, sighing. "We're going to Alaska. But, Kieran, when is the flight?"

"It's tomorrow morning at nine" the dying man said. "We're going to have to find a hotel or Pokemon center to stay at tonight. I don't know about you guys, but I don't particularly like the idea of sleeping on the floor of an airport".

"I'm with you on this one" I said.

It is probably worth noting that I was still more than a little wary of Kieran Mortimer. I was sure that, by revealing his story, he had intended to get us to trust him more. If anything, however, it had had the opposite effect. I was starting to wonder why we should trust a terminally ill young man with nothing to lose. After all, he was 24 and might not live to see 25. He could burn any bridges he wanted.

At the same time, I felt that I had nothing to lose as well. It was cool being a Zoroark, but I was getting sick of this unwieldy body that I was currently trapped in. The way it was going, I would be ecstatic to return to being a human.

"Let's find a place to stay" Garfield said.

* * *

An hour later, we were at a hotel called the Lucario Lounge. According to Kieran, it was a chain, with many different locations in various cities around the world. I didn't know that before, but I might not even have known it after he told me that.

You see, my definition of knowledge is, "When you believe something to a very high degree of certainty- and it's true". What Kieran said might be true, or it might not be.

"Why can't we just teleport to Alaska?" I asked Eric, once we had gotten settled in one of the three rooms we had purchased (I was with Eric, Kieran and Garfield were together, and Samuel, Malcolm, and Michelle were together. I didn't know why the hotel would have given a room to three minors, but that was just what they did). "Wouldn't that be a hell of a lot easier and quicker than flying?"

"You might think so, Lucas, but that's not the way it works" the man said. "You see, my Mesprit has certain limitations. It can't teleport more than a certain distance away. When you were in the cell with Team Rocket, we were able to teleport you back to the Pokemon center because it was only a few miles away. To get to Alaska, that's more than four thousand miles. I'm sure you realize that that'd be hundreds of times harder".

"I get the point" I said, sighing. It looked like we were going to have to fly, something that I wasn't looking forward to doing.

For one, my size. Even as a human being, I was uncomfortable on planes, because I always wished that I would have more legroom. As a Zoroark, things were bound to be far worse. I hoped that I would not attract too much attention on an airplane, but that might just be too much to ask for.

I looked around the room. With two beds, plush crimson walls, as well as green wall-to-wall carpeting with images of golden flowers, it was pretty luxurious. Of course, the idea of _flowers_ didn't exactly make me all warm and fuzzy inside. It definitely brought back some memories that were not welcome at this stage in our quest.

* * *

Later, I did lie awake pondering things.

The second flower had been far too easy to find. It had literally just been in the middle of the park, in a field of weeds. I had read enough action novels, and seen enough movies, to know that if something seems too easy to be true, then it almost certainly is. Usually, there's going to be some sort of trick involved that might send the protagonists reeling.

As for the first...that had been one crazy fetch-quest. It had started with me just recovering from the fight with Kieran on top of the hill, and ended with me in the Pokemon center after being rescued from Team Rocket. I never did think that it would be that way; I had figured that it would all be over once we had all received the Insomnia blessing. Evidently, this was not to be the case.

Above all, however, I was pondering how things were going to go from here on out. We were going to fly on up to Alaska, and there was no telling what dangers might await us there. With thoughts like that, in addition to the fact that we had a very long travel day tomorrow, it was not easy to get to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, after eating an early breakfast at the buffet, we went to the subway station that was closest to the hotel. Since our tickets were for a flight departing from JFK, we were taking the train to Queens, two boroughs east of Manhattan.

Malcolm was, of course, very intrigued by the subway system, having never been to a large city before. The idea of going underground in order to get on a train seemed like the most incredible thing in the world to him.

As we walked through the turnstiles in order to get to the platform, the young Zorua kept on letting out tiny squeals of delight. I didn't blame him; the first time I had been on a New York City subway, when I was about six years old, I had been just as excited as him, even if I had not shown it quite as much.

"I'm a bit worried about this" I admitted.

I wasn't afraid to do so, reason being that the seven of us had pretty much been given a car to ourselves. A young man with gray hair, a huge man, a militaristic middle-aged man, a hyperactive young Zorua, a Zoroark, and a Lucario is not a group that can easily travel throughout New York City without attracting a lot of attention.

"Don't be" Eric said. "Soon, we'll be on the plane, and then we'll be well on our way to Alaska. And don't be afraid of the view from economy class, either".

"What's that supposed to mean?" Malcolm asked.

"Basically, those who don't want to pay extra money to fly in luxury have to sit behind them".

"Lame" the young Zorua said. "Are we in luxury?"

"No" Kieran said, checking over our boarding passes once again. "We're in economy class. Could the Flower Queen not have at least given us first class tickets? Especially since I'm snuffing it soon anyways?"

I didn't know why the Flower Queen hadn't done that. However, I didn't see any reason to dwell on that. The fact was, it was going to be a long day, and we were just going to have to get through it.

Once we arrived at the airport, there was not a whole lot of drama. We checked in fairly quickly, Malcolm of course excited about everything. The other six of us tried to calm him down, but it was clear that Samuel had hardly ever set foot in an airport himself.

By the time we had gotten to security, Malcolm was absolutely in awe. Clearly, he wasn't a fan of walking through the metal detector, but he had nothing to hide. The Pokeballs went through security as well, since it was mandatory for a trainer to have all of their Pokemon's Pokeballs with them, reason being that a bond breaking was not a pleasant situation. It would instill a very strong feeling of abandonment in your pocket monsters that most people would want to avoid at all costs.

We arrived at gate C14 about half an hour before we were expected to board. I watched Malcolm admire the planes coming in and out, while some others made quick trips to get something from Starbuck's.

All of us were simply waiting for when we were going to get on that plane, and then we'd end up going somewhere that none of us had ever been before. Alaska was going to be dangerous, sure, but it could also end up being very rewarding for all of us, and indeed the entire world, if we managed to pull out the goal of this quest. I felt, now, that it was possible, particularly if we had a deity, in the Flower Queen, behind us in this effort.

I sighed, crossing my arms behind my head.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I had never flown in an airplane before, and I tried to savor the experience, not knowing whether or not I would survive what was on the other side of this flight.

First, we waited in line to board, which felt like forever. My aura sensing abilities were picking up on fatigue and frustration, from waiting in the line. After handing our boarding passes to the woman at the head of the line, we walked down an interesting hallway onto the plane.

"I've never been on a plane before, either" Malcolm said. "All I know is that I don't like it very much".

"Yeah, well, that's just the way things work, sometimes" Garfield said. "If you'd rather abandon this Quest for the safety and comfort of the village, be my guest".

Malcolm just got into his seat as I helped with his seat belt. Kieran was sitting one row behind the rest of us, in a middle seat. On the left side of the plane, I had the aisle seat, with Malcolm in the window seat (he had insisted) and Lucas in the middle. Michelle was between Garfield in the aisle and Eric in the window, and I could tell that she was uncomfortable. Clearly, it was not a good idea for the two largest humans to be sharing a side row together, but this was just the way it was with the tickets the Flower Queen had gotten us.

Lucas helped both of us with our seatbelts, and we waited for the flight attendant to finish giving us the safety demonstration. Both of the flowers we had collected earlier in the quest were sitting in a tiny vase on his tray table, which was not stowed, somehow.

"Ah...Mr. Zoroark, Seat 17B?" the flight attendant asked.

"Yes?" Lucas said, staring up at the young woman, whom he could probably have torn to shreds if he had wanted to.

"Please keep your tray table stowed as we prepare for take-off" the flight attendant said.

Lucas's face flushed slightly, which was difficult to tell given that his face was black fur. "I'll do that" he said, taking the flowers off of the tray table and stowing it once again.

I shot Lucas a look that said, _Did you carry it in a vase on?_ Somehow, he was able to tell what I was implying. Either that, or he was able to guess fairly easily.

The Zoroark shook his head. I recalled how it had reappeared, once we had acquired it, pretty much anywhere we went, or, more specifically, where _he_ went. The flower had been with him in Team Rocket's dungeon, but it had ended up next to his hospital bed later. And now it had appeared once again in the plane.

The Flower Queen didn't seem to be omnipotent, but she did have quite a great deal of power. For that, I was glad. The flower had stayed with us through everything, like a very loyal Portuguese water dog following its master.

The plane took off, and it was pretty cool to see the landscape below us, as the buildings on the ground started to look just like toys. That wasn't to say that I was enjoying flying, because it was taking me away from the auras on the Earth.

Not only that, but the plane was quite stuffy as well. As I was a Steel type, and thus allergic to Fire types, I was miserable very soon. When the flight attendant came around with drinks, I finished off my Sprite before using the ice cubes to massage my overheated body.

I was glad that our destination was the coldest state in the USA. Once we were there, I was definitely going to be in a much better mood than I was right now. It would have been even worse if I had had the middle seat, but Lucas was not having a great time either.

I suspected that this had something to do with our immense fur coats that every Lucario and Zoroark had. It was no secret to anyone that having such a heavy amount of fur is a major insulator. Because of this, I felt that, if some of my fur were to be shaved off, gallons of sweat would come pouring onto the ground.

At this point, I silently cursed Eric for not having a Mesprit that was powerful enough for us to teleport all the way to Alaska. Had we done that, I might not be at risk of having a terrible heat stroke right now.

I pondered over this as I eventually sank into a doze. Or you could change one letter and say it was a _daze._ Whatever way you want to put it, I was out of it for the rest of the flight.

* * *

After we landed in Seattle, it was a brief relief from the heat before we had to get on another plane. Thankfully, it was a smaller plane this time, so I wasn't surrounded by the auras of all of these people. Malcolm was constantly snuggling up next to me, which I found pretty annoying. Especially when my bladder started acting up, I had to get him off of me so I could go to the restroom. Really, the young Zorua could be quite infuriating at times.

Hopefully, once Malcolm evolved into a Zoroark, he would be slightly less exuberant than he was right now. I knew that battling was the way that you evolved a Zorua into a Zoroark, by levelling up and such, so it would not be too much out of the question for Malcolm to evolve while we were in Alaska.

Of course, that depended on him surviving. That not happening was also not out of the question.

After getting on the flight, it was about another three and a half hours until we got to Fairbanks. I was unable to get to sleep this time, so I was left to wilt in the hot...not _sun,_ but _air,_ I suppose.

I really did feel like I was baking in an oven. I didn't want to end up sprawled on the ground, but the fact was that I needed to stay as hydrated as possible. Every time the flight attendant came around, I swabbed my forehead with the ice cubes. I didn't care how socially awkward it looked; I just wanted to survive the flight and not spend the night in the hospital. Those were my two goals.

Finally, we began our descent into Fairbanks. Malcolm had woken up, and was stretching back across his seat. I did the same thing, eager to get onto my feet again. I'd probably hold up the line for the water fountain for quite a while, but my thirst felt nearly unquenchable. My mouth was as dry as I imagined Lucas's had been after being rescued from Team Rocket.

We didn't have to get anything from baggage claim, since we had brought everything on board with us. Besides, we hadn't packed for comfort, just efficiency. Anything that would have weighed us down wasn't needed.

* * *

Once we were out of the terminal, we took a shuttle bus from the airport to the train station for the Alaskan Railroad. We bought tickets for seven people, gold star, which Eric could somehow afford. After that, we were left to admire the landscape from the lobby of the hotel we had gone to.

For the most part, the landscape was fairly flat, although tall mountains rose in the distance. Pine trees, mainly without much breadth to them, dotted the plains as well. The air was somewhat chilly, but not something that you wouldn't expect in Alaska. Really, it was warmer than you might think.

Kieran looked somewhat refreshed as well, being in the fresh air once again. I wondered if this was because he might have felt a little more clarity, with his life ending soon. Was it possible that Alaska was giving him this clarity?

"This is a pretty nice hotel" Lucas said, stretching his legs so that they made it onto the coffee table. He looked completely and totally relaxed, sighing happily. I could tell that he was in a good mood to be here as well. His red ponytail was dangling off of the back of the armchair he was sitting in, and he pumped his arms in the air like someone waking up from a very refreshing sleep.

Eric, Garfield, and Kieran helped get our room ready; it was a three-room suite. Malcolm had been given a couch bed, with Garfield in Kieran in one room, Eric and Michelle in another, and Lucas and myself in the third. All of these rooms were connected with a small, green-carpeted hallway.

Later, after we had gotten settled in our rooms, we sat outside eating dinner. Our table was situated right next to a river, so we could see the way the sinking sun made ripples of light all throughout the slightly undulating surface of the water. Eric's Pokemon were all in Pokeballs back in the room, but none of us were too worried about them having to eat anything. The environment inside Pokeballs would provide Eric's Pokemon with all that they needed in order to survive; it was essentially a stasis chamber, if you wanted to put it that way.

"So we're taking the Alaskan Railroad tomorrow?" Malcolm asked.

"Yep" Eric said. "Gold star, which means we get free drinks. However, we're only allowed into the dining car at certain times, because a lot of other people are going to want to eat there as well. You've got to be patient, Malcolm Greenlake".

"Okay" Malcolm said, sipping his root beer at a speed so fast that there was no doubt he would be in mild agony within the next few seconds.

Subverted, as he did not double over with the pain from the carbonation. Instead, he simply continued sitting in his chair, probably fairly contented with the way things were going. I knew that I was.

Now, all we had to do was to get on a luxurious train, and we would be taken to where we needed to go. It could not have been any simpler.

And yet, as I got into bed later, I could not stop thinking that something, somehow, was going to go wrong.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

I didn't know how Eric had all of these connections, to the point that he was able to afford such ritzy tickets on the Alaskan Railroad. I wasn't going to complain, of course, but I was confused. Why had the Flower Queen not provided us with these tickets to begin with?

Maybe it would have looked weird at the airport. But, if that was the case, why come to the airport having seven plane tickets already?

It's been said that God works in mysterious ways. If the Flower Queen counted as a deity, this could be just another example of that.

Now, I was sitting in a comfortable seat on the top deck of the train car. I had been placed next to Malcolm, which I was okay with. The train did have an open-air car that one could go to in order to look at the various views, as well as get some fresh air.

I wasn't in the mood for that, however, so I decided to settle in for a nap. I figured that I'd wake up long before we got to Anchorage, so this wouldn't really be a problem. Everything was going to be fine.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up to find that none of the others were with me. I tried not to panic, but I was freaking out on the inside. Where _was_ everybody?

The train's wheels clanged against the tracks, making noises akin to tires popping. If this train got a flat tire, I was going to be pissed.

And...were those sounds of _battle_ from the area below us? The dining car?

As I looked out at the northern wilderness, I knew that this was going to get ugly.

* * *

 **Cliffhanger!**

 **I have been to Alaska, in July of last year, during which I wrote a story that is no longer on my account. We went to Fairbanks and rode on the Alaskan Railroad, which was pretty awesome. Much of this chapter comes from my own experience in the Last Fronteir. Since we went during the summer, the sun was actually extremely strong, and I felt like I was standing on the deck of a ship due to jet lag (I'm four time zones east of Alaska).**

 **In any case, it was a 6,000+ word chapter completely devoid of action, for which I am very sorry. I am assuming that this is not what you wanted, and it was actually going to be even longer at first.**

 **With that, I ask you to rate and review, just the same as usual.**

 **Sincerely, SnowLucario.**


	19. Fight, Flight, And Fright

**Okay. I'm well north of 7,000 views at this point, with only a few more chapters to go in the story. I have not had quite the same desire to write as of late, but I'm going to keep churning these out. In exchange, I would love to get more reviews than I have been getting lately. My goal for this story, as I have stated before, is 100, and if I write a sequel I am aiming for 200. (That said, I won't abandon the story just because I get that number). At this point, I am leaning towards writing one, but I'm going to put up a poll on my profile as to whether you want it or not.**

 **Once the poll receives 20 "Yes" votes, I will begin the story if I have already finished this one. I do have an idea for what might happen after this story.**

 _Answer: I'm a pretty strong swimmer, and I walk on the treadmill. I'm not very athletic, though; I don't play any sports._

 _Question: What do you think is going to happen after all is said and done? I really am curious about this._

 **With that, let us begin the chapter!**

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I was watching Michelle sleep when I felt a stab of fear radiating off of the dining car. Not a small amount, mind you.

Normally, I didn't set too much store by these things. Really, fear was relatively commonplace, and it's one of the most powerful emotions there is. Of _course_ I would be noticing it. The question that was far more consequential was, what was causing this fear? Was it a group of enemies that had somehow snuck onto the train? Was it _Team Rocket?_

I tapped Lucas on the shoulder. He wasn't asleep, but he had been pretty absorbed in staring out the window at the Alaskan countryside. I wanted to make sure that he was ready for whatever was about to happen. We might need a Zoroark on our side.

Eric and Garfield had already gone downstairs for some lunch. I knew that Lucas was not hungry, and neither was I. If we had been, we would have gone to the dining car. Since each group of passengers had only one specified time that they were allowed to be in there in order to eat, we were willingly forgoing our one chance to have lunch, figuring that we'd get to eat dinner later anyway.

"Do you think they're okay?" I asked him, before mentally slapping myself in the face. To Lucas, that question would sound absolutely ridiculous, because of the fact that he couldn't sense aura. I could, and I could tell that a lot of people in the dining car were in great fear. But Lucas wouldn't see why I should be worried about them.

Sure enough, the Zoroark turned towards me and asked, "Why wouldn't they be? I would think that this train would be pretty safe, wouldn't you think?" He had a confused frown on his face, and I wished that I could have shared my ability to sense aura with him, or rather allowed him to sense it as well.

"Are you talking about the dining car?" Kieran asked. "If so, I know. I can sense it too".

I had almost forgotten that Kieran also had the ability to sense aura. I was going to have to make sure to ask him about that one of these days, although I would have to make it soon; I didn't know how much longer he had to live. Indeed, I didn't know how long _I_ had to live.

"Should we go down there?" Lucas asked. "I don't know what you're talking about".

I decided to patiently explain it to him, even though I knew that time was likely of the essence. "Kieran and I are sensing a disturbance in the dining car" I said. "You know that our friends are there, so let's go see what it is!"

"Should we just leave Michelle here?" Kieran asked. "She seems to be having a nice nap".

"Sure. Let's" Lucas said. "I just want to deal with this problem, though. I'd rather not wake her up; I bet she barely got any sleep last night, from the jet lag".

We got up, leaving Michelle dozing in her chair. We made our way down the stairs, and, sure enough, we heard the sound of wheels clanging against tracks, in a way that did _not_ sound normal. It was likely that something had to be wrong with the train, or else there wouldn't be anything like this going on.

As we got into the dining car, I was shocked by the sight.

A group of Fire type Pokemon were standing on the other side of the car. A trio of Vulpices, Growlithes, and Torchics appeared ready to set it on fire. The literal fire in their eyes attested to that.

"Lucas London! You are on this train, correct?"

The teenager who had become a Zoroark held up his arms like someone allowing themselves to be arrested by the cops. "Yes. Are you guys Team Rocket?"

"No, Lucas! You can't go back to them!" I yelled. Although I didn't sense the intention in Lucas to give himself over to Team Rocket again, I couldn't overemphasize how much I _really_ didn't want him to. This had resulted in him being experimented on, drained of a significant amount of blood, and hospitalized in a Pokemon center for two days. There was no way I could let him go through that again.

Lucas turned around and smiled wryly. "Who said I'm going to? If anything, _you're_ the one who should stay back!"

I realized what he meant. Fire types were very strong against Steel types, and I could get seriously hurt in this fight. It wasn't a fact that I was a particular fan of, but I knew that this was the way things worked. For this one, I would definitely have to be careful.

I looked at the table that Eric and Garfield had been sitting at. A hamburger had been placed in front of the younger man, but he had yet to take a bite out of it. He was holding it and pointing it away from the Fire types, as if he was going to throw it for them to fetch, in order to make it so that they would be distracted, and we would be able to get away. I was confident that this could work.

From behind the Fire types stepped a young man wearing a black jumpsuit. Sure enough, sown onto the front of said jumpsuit was a red version of the eighteenth letter of the English alphabet. Which meant one thing, and one thing only.

" **Team Rocket!"** Eric yelled, springing upwards like a clown out of a jack-in-the-box. He pushed myself, Kieran, and Lucas to the side, jumping in front of us. It was clear that he wanted to protect us, but one thing you should know about me is that I am very reluctant to allow others to risk their lives for my sake. Call me noble, call me old-fashioned, I don't care. That's just not the way I like to live, letting others risk themselves on my behalf.

Eric threw out his blue Pokeball, the one that contained Golem. The Rock type appeared out of a beam of light, and immediately began pursuing one of the Vulpices, which responded by using Ember.

I had to jump back in order to avoid getting hit by it. Indeed, it was best that Eric was standing in front of Malcolm, because his pants took most of it. And I saw something that I did not particularly need to.

Eric Owsley, this tough military guy, wore tighty whities. Quite a significant amount of the Calvin Kleins were visible, and I was very shocked by this. Hopefully, he wouldn't notice, because he needed to keep fighting.

I decided not to mention it, and I lobbed an aura sphere into the group, trying to break them apart. For reasons stated above, I couldn't have just charged in there; I had to attack from a distance thanks to my type disadvantage.

Thankfully, it seemed that the only damage that had been done to Eric was to his dignity. To his credit, he threw out his red Pokeball, the one that contained Haunter.

I could tell that he was cursing the fact that he had never thought to purchase a Water type Pokemon.

"Don't use Zubat!" Lucas called to Eric. I knew why he said this; after all, this was the way that the Londons' home had been ruined, the continuous mixture of fire and poison making the place completely unlivable. Admittedly, most of that had been due to the fire rather than the poison, but still.

Lucas bared his fangs in frustration, since he couldn't even do anything. I might have only known the young man for a couple of weeks, but I knew that one thing Lucas London could not live with was not being in control. He always wanted to have some degree of power over the situation at hand, and yet here he was, completely powerless to help Eric.

Suddenly, Michelle ran into the car, making it seven of us against the army of Fire types. She looked as though she had just woken up from a nap, which, of course, was true.

I wondered why nobody had entered with a fire extinguisher; maybe they were too scared to, in which case I didn't understand why they had volunteered to do that job if need be. Wasn't that part of your rights and responsibilities as a passenger or crew member?

"I just woke up and saw that all of you were gone. Let's kick these Fire types' asses!"

Just then, Golem lurched to one side, banging into the wall of the train with a sound that made me cover my ears in order to avoid my eardrums bursting. When I say that, it is no exaggeration. It felt like my ears, as well as my aura sensing organs, were going to explode, probably splattering all sorts of juices all over the train car.

The dining car lurched in one direction, while the train was moving in the other direction. More specifically, we were moved to the right, and I heard one of the most terrible sounds in the world. It was the sound of something _detaching._

 _The dining car had separated from the others._

It was just like something you might see in an old Western movie, made far more terrifying by the fact that it was real. We were about to go careening off the tracks!

This wasn't good news. Looking out the window, I saw that we were about to go off of a bridge. Even if we could survive the fall, which was doubtful, the river below would kill us. The fast-moving whitewater, over a hundred feet below us, was nearly impossible to swim in. I hadn't seen any other members of our group swim, but I knew that I was pretty good at it. Still, I knew enough about falling from such a distance to know that it was nearly impossible to live, that hitting water from such a height would be akin to hitting concrete. Really, there was going to be little difference.

"We need to get the car connected to the others again!" Malcolm wailed. "Otherwise, we're all gonna die!"

"Don't be like that, Malcolm!" Eric scolded the young Zorua. "Think _positively"._

Indeed, it was hard to think positively when you were about to go flying a hundred and fifty feet off of a bridge. We were already tipping over, and I would rather go out on my own terms than get crushed by a train car. I didn't want to die like this.

"I'll call Crobat!" Kieran yelled. "Then, we'll jump onto him. Are you guys cool with that?"

There was no need for him to ask this question, really. If we didn't try to do this, we would die anyway. I could see the conductor, running towards the door that had formerly led to the dining car, but I knew that his efforts were hopeless. We were still stuck in here with the Fire types, who, for the most part, were panicking about their likely fates as well.

Thirty feet below the edge of the bridge, I saw the sight that I was becoming used to.

"Crobat! You got him!" I cried.

"Might as well jump" Eric said.

Kieran was the first to jump out of the window, like an action hero from a movie. He spread his limbs out like a skydiver and managed to grab onto the end of its body. He managed to pull himself onto Crobat's back, steadying things a little more.

"Go ahead and jump!" Garfield yelled. "I'll die valiantly, in battle against these things".

"No!" Lucas cried. "You're coming with us!"

Taking the large man's hand, Lucas pushed Garfield out, who, I saw, barely managed to get a spot on Crobat's back. The Zoroark then jumped out himself, followed by Malcolm, who, I noticed, was clinging to Lucas's ponytail.

That was actually pretty cute. Unfortunately, three of us still needed to get out of the train car.

We tipped over further, to the point that the windows were nearly touching the tracks. I knew that everyone else was safe, but the Fire types were making it pretty uncomfortable to be in this heat. We _had_ to jump out.

"You go first! I'm going to make sure you and Michelle land safely before I jump" Eric said.

I looked back at the older man, allowing my face to look a combination of angry and worried. I could sense that he had only the best intentions in doing so, but it was hard for me to comply with his recommendation. For one, I was kind of afraid of heights. And, in a situation like this, "kind of" afraid could mean afraid enough to risk dying in a falling train car filled with Fire types.

Michelle stepped to the window and leaped out, grabbing the side of the thing's wing. At that point, I decided to do the only sensible thing that there was.

I jumped.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

It had been quite something, let me tell you that much. I had never thought that I would end up jumping out of the window of a train car, but that was what I was forced to do.

There was the sensation of falling, the wind whipping all around my fur and ponytail, and I was spreading my limbs like a skydiver. If I was going to die now, at least it was going to be in one of the most badass ways imaginable, even if I was not going to get mauled by a bear.

Eventually, all seven of us had gotten onto Crobat. It was a lot more difficult to fasten the harnesses when you were already in the air, but we managed to do them. Then, we could just enjoy the ride.

"I hope the other people in the train are fine" Michelle said. She looked at me with a very worried expression on her face.

Eric looked back at both of us severely and began barking out at us. "You do realize that we're the most valuable people right now? I'm not glad they might die by any means, but we have to do what we can to shut down this factory!"

"But if-" I began.

"Don't feel bad about it, Lucas London! The way it was going, there was no way in hell that we were going to be able to do anything about it. The train car was already tipping over! Now, we've just got to deal with it, get down to Seward!"

"How long until we reach Seward?" Malcolm asked, sounding anxious to get there.

"A couple of hours?" Kieran said. "Hard to tell. All I know is, we just barely got out of there alive. You should really be grateful for this guy".

As he said that last sentence, the dying man was patting Crobat on the back of the head. I had never seen Kieran show such affection towards one of his Pokemon. I didn't know, either, why the Pokemon he summoned had such loyalty to him, either. That was a question I was going to need to ask him sometime.

Sometime _soon,_ because Kieran did not have a very long time to live. Whether it was a few weeks or a few months, the fact remained that Kieran Mortimer would soon be dead. The question was, would it be during our quest? How much longer would it take?

For the most part, I trusted Kieran a lot more than I had at the start of this quest, partly because he had been so open with us about his secret. He could have killed us, but I had figured that, if he was planning on it, he would have done so already. Certainly it would be harder now that we had Eric and Garfield with us, both people with quite militaristic personalities. Surely they would be able to protect us against anything Kieran might try.

I decided not to think about those things, or at least _try_ not to. Instead, I tried to focus on the scenery below us. It really was quite something.

Trees, trees as far as the eye could see. There were quite a few mountains nearby, capped with snow all year round. Below us, some leaves were turning, but the vast majority of the trees were evergreens. I wondered what kinds of Pokemon lived in the forests down there. Perhaps some Deerling and Xerneas, but I didn't know.

Hopefully, we weren't going to have to fight any wild ones. If so, I wasn't sure how well that was going to turn out. I'm not the best fighter, and that had never been more clear than when we were on the train just now.

Even though Eric had reassured me that it wasn't my fault, I wasn't completely confident that this was the case. After all, we could have stopped them from being able to detach the dining car from the others. I was pretty sure that the other passengers on the Alaskan Railroad were going to be pretty pissed that they wouldn't be able to eat lunch or dinner on their way south to Anchorage.

In the distance, I saw what I thought was Denali, the highest mountain in North America. It was just like pictures I had seen of it, except that it looked even bigger in real life. And, looking down at the vast wilderness, it occurred to me how small all of us were.

Don't get me wrong. Eric and Garfield were both pretty big guys, and I'm pretty large as a Zoroark. Still, it was nothing as compared to the vast state that lay below us. It was also pretty chilly in the air, but my fur insulated me from the worst of it. The humans among us had worn clothing from the Pokemon center, but all of our bags were left in the gold star section of the train, for we had foolishly thought that we would be going back to it, an assumption that we had been very, _very_ wrong about.

All I was left to think about was the quest. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced of it.

I was a pretty despicable human being, or Zoroark, former human. (Maybe I'd become human again if we completed this quest, but I wasn't counting on it. Possibly the articles of clothing that Team Jewel had created, in order to commit what might be considered terrorism on the innocent citizens of the world, would make their curses permanent. And, the more I considered it, the more unlikely it seemed, since I highly doubted that people would come back from the dead, if people truly had died from the curses brought upon by the clothing).

But my friends had risked so much to save me from the clutches of Team Rocket, and so I felt more than a small degree of loyalty to them. At this point, I was practically willing to follow them to the ends of the earth, if they had literally followed me into that dank dungeon. You could, I supposed, consider that to be the end of the earth.

And, in exchange, when I had had the chance to do more in order to save the people on the train, I had not been able to do it. At least, not to the extent that I should have tried. Should I have been more aggressive, used more attacks?

The problem was that, when a Zoroark used its illusions to take the form of another Pokemon, it didn't copy all of its abilities. I would not have been able to use the water cannons had I turned into a Blastoise, for instance. Based on that, one could make a very convincing case that I had done all I could.

Even all I could have done was not enough. That was a humbling thought, and deeply disturbing. I felt like a grade-A jerk, but I couldn't dwell on it.

We flew south for several hours, and I was starting to wonder just how big this state was. I had read somewhere that the distance from Miami to Los Angeles was approximately the same distance from the southeastern corner of the state to the southwestern. If so, I wondered what the distance was from Denali to Seward.

At a certain point, however, we saw a large city below us. Garfield woke up from a nap (I swear, I had thought that the dude _never_ slept during the day) in order to say, "That's Anchorage!"

Indeed, it probably was. According to a map we'd seen on the train, we were getting close, but we weren't quite there yet. It would probably be another forty-five minutes to an hour.

I was surprised that Garfield had been able to nap on the back of a Crobat, because of all of the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I felt like I could have run laps around Seward as a _warm-up._ I was tempted to hold my hands high above my head like someone having a great time on a roller coaster, but I wondered if the others wouldn't like that. Certainly, I didn't want to hit them on accident and sweep them off of Crobat's back.

Eventually, the ocean came within sight. The midafternoon sun was casting sparkles of light all over Resurrection Bay, as well as the town below us.

Seward was essentially a small town in the shadow of a small mountain covered in pine trees. An esplanade ran for several miles along the ocean, with hotels, restaurants, and mobile homes lining it. A rocky beach was on the other side of the esplanade, framed against the ocean, which did not look like a color you would have expected for a place this far north.

Most people would picture it as a dark, navy blue color. Instead, it was a far lighter color, more like you would imagine a tropical body of water to be like. I noticed the other members of my group letting out gasps at the sheer beauty of it.

Crobat then circled towards the ground, spreading its wings, before dropping us next to the aquarium. I stood up, only now realizing just how stiff my legs were.

Now, standing on terra firma again, the guilt hit me full-force. Nobody else looked too happy, either, even though we were closer to achieving the goal of our quest than we had ever been.

"It's okay" Samuel said, patting me on the back. "Things are going to be all right. Let's see what's going on in the aquarium. Can we find out more about this town?"

"Good idea" Eric replied. "Let's go check inside, see if anyone is going to be able to tell us of any good hotels".

With that, we stepped inside the building. It was about four in the afternoon, and many schoolchildren had already gone home for the day, or were just hanging out at the aquarium. The young woman at the front desk looked fairly surprised to see us, which wasn't surprising.

After all, Seward was a small town. I would be shocked if she regularly saw groups of people looking similar to us, particularly since some of us were Pokemon.

"Where is a good hotel we can stay at?" Garfield asked the woman.

The woman behind the desk started typing something into her computer, constantly looking back up at us. Eventually, she said, "The Lucario Lounge, Seward is the best place for you guys. It's about a mile down the esplanade".

"Man, Lucario Lounges are _everywhere"_ Kieran said. "I guess it's a pretty big chain, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is" the woman behind the desk said. "Just walk along the avenue, and you can't miss it. At least, not if you're looking for it".

Eric and Kieran thanked her before leading the way out of the aquarium. Looking down the path, I saw that the esplanade was a much longer path than it had looked from the air. Indeed, it might feel even longer when you had just spent four hours on the back of a Crobat and were feeling quite stiff as a result.

"Let's go to the Lucario Lounge" Michelle said.

We began walking down the esplanade, dodging people's Meowths, Growlithes, and Vulpices. For such a small town, it did seem quite busy at this time of day.

"The plan for tomorrow?" Malcolm asked.

"Excuse me?" Eric said. "What do you mean by _the plan for tomorrow?_ "

"Well, what _are_ we doing tomorrow? Looking for Team Jewel?"

"Yes" Eric replied. "We're getting a boat, and then Lucas is going to use the remote to search for it. Do you still have the remote?"

"I do" I said. Somehow, the remote had stayed in my backpack the whole time. Of course, that was because I had not taken it out.

At the same time, however, I was reminded of the purple flower's antics at the Pokemon center, how it had gone from in a cell with me to the table beside my hospital bed. I assumed that the remote would have the same properties, but I couldn't be sure. I couldn't be sure of anything anymore.

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

After a nice dinner at the hotel, we all went to bed, and I woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than before. Slowly, I was overcoming the jet lag that had plagued all of us ever since arriving in Alaska.

As I ate a muffin from the breakfast buffet, I stared across Resurrection Bay, looking at the wide, light blue expanses. I knew that we were going to have to use the remote Lucas had been given by the Flower Queen, in order to figure out where we were going to have to go. There was no real way to know where it was; I couldn't very well picture the _exact_ hexadecimal color that the field was.

"Where are we going to rent the boat?" Samuel asked Eric between bites of his apple turnover.

"There's a place about half a mile down the other side of the esplanade" the oldest member of our group said. "It's fairly cheap and easy to get a small luxury motorboat, and just take that across the bay. Maybe some in Kenai Fjords National Park, too".

"We'll have to have a lot of gas in that tank" Kieran replied.

"How'd you know that?" Garfield asked the gaunt man. "Have you ever been in a motorboat before?"

"No" he said. "My family could never afford it. All of you rich folks are lucky".

"For the record, I don't have any huge secrets as to why I'm rich" Eric said, holding up his hands.

"What do you mean?" Kieran asked.

"I just inherited the money" he said. "My parents were pretty rich, and they're both gone now. But that's a story for another day".

I didn't really like the way Eric just tossed the memories of his deceased parents aside. Then again, I supposed that I was doing very much the same thing now. The only difference was, I had managed to do the mental gymnastics to completely make myself sure that I didn't really care. I barely remembered that my mother had died.

I'm sorry, but give me a break. It can really distract you from grief when you get sent on a quest to collect magical flowers, your elder brother is kidnapped by Team Rocket and nearly killed, and you escape from a falling and burning train car in Alaska. That's just not something that happens very often.

I supposed that I felt pretty bad about that. It wasn't something that had been my fault; rather, it had been because of Kieran calling his Poison army to defend against the Fire army.

Of course, I now knew, or at least had a pretty good idea, why Kieran was so attracted to Poison types. He was slowly dying, as if there was poison in his system, so it made sense. What I didn't know was where the Fire army had come from.

I did have my suspicions. Perhaps this evil organization the Flower Queen had told us about, Team Jewel, was responsible. That was a theory I could get behind.

After our breakfast was over, we checked out of the hotel and began walking along the avenue towards the boat rental place. It was slightly chilly this early in the day, but nothing I couldn't handle. After all, I was used to New England winters, so this should be no problem for me. At least, that was what I had been figuring.

We arrived at the boat rental place, where Eric and Kieran picked out a Boston Whaler. As it was lowered into the water, Lucas appeared to be trying to increase his focus. He took out his remote that had been given to him by the Flower Queen.

"What did the Flower Queen say about using that for navigation?" I asked him. "By which I mean, how will I know when we are getting close?"

My brother said, "I think she said it would beep, getting faster and faster the closer we got to our destination, or maybe it would heat up. Now that I think about it, it was almost certainly the latter".

"We'll need heat on this boat" Samuel said, laughing.

Even on the shore, it was easy to tell that it was quite windy. The Lucario's aura sensing organs were waving in the breeze, but it would likely be far worse at sea.

Still, I felt ready for that. I knew that this was a necessary evil, in order to go along with the quest. I could deal with a little cold weather.

"Let's do this" Lucas said, pumping his fist.

* * *

 **It is entirely possible that this, not the longest chapter in the story, might be my last chapter as a 16-year-old. I might no longer be this age by the time the next one comes out.**

 **I was going to make the search for the factory more of this chapter, but I decided against it. I'm figuring that it'll be better as the start of the next one. Not many people are reviewing, but I guess people are busy with finals and such.**

 **In any case, read, review, and wait for the next chapter! There are still a few more to go.**


	20. Infiltration

**James Comey's testimony was interesting to watch. Let's see if Trump testifies, too, like he says he's willing to. This is going to be a crazy next few months.**

 **This is the antepenultimate chapter of Zoroark's Pendant. If you look that up in the dictionary, that means "coming before the next to last". From here on out, there will be no chapter questions and answers. We're in the home stretch, people. And I decided to delete that poll, since I wasn't getting any votes.**

 **In other news, I'm asking for two Survivor buffs for my birthday (Ta Keo, the teal one from Cambodia, and Orkun, the orange merge buff from the same season). In case you're wondering, my collection consists of Tadhana, Aparri, Huyopa, Bayon, Angkor, Chan Loh, Vanua, Takali, Vinaka, Mana, Nuku, Tavua, and Maku Maku. You can just look those up, in case you don't know what those are.**

 **Finally, we have a new cover picture once again, and credit for it goes to FoxJosh1. He found it on Google, and, should the original owner come to me and request it to be taken down, I will gladly do so and replace it with the one Jirulius made for me.**

 **With that, let us begin the story!**

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

At first, it was difficult to follow the signal. It sounded like the _beep, beep, beep_ of a heart monitor in a hospital, a sound that did not bring back good memories, what with how Samuel Cranmore and I had met. Plus, it could be difficult to hear over the wind.

However, the more I got used to it, the more I realized that it was fairly easy. It was just like the childhood game of hot and cold. The faster the remote was beeping, the closer we were getting to the headquarters of Team Jewel.

I wondered if it would be similar to the headquarters of Team Rocket, or, worse, if Team Jewel was affiliated with Team Rocket. If that was the case, I was going to be more than dismayed; I was going to be angry beyond all get-out. I didn't want that to be the case.

After all, it was quite simple, and I had had quite bad memories of getting kidnapped by Team Rocket. I still recalled being infused with massive amounts of caffeine and forced to run on a treadmill for an hour. I still recalled being drained of a third of the blood in my body. I still recalled the fear I had felt as I was shackled to the wall, waiting for death to take over.

I wasn't eager to repeat the experience anytime soon, to put it mildly.

Now, though, I had to focus. I was sitting at the bow of the boat, with Samuel on one side of me and Malcolm on the other. Behind us were Garfield and Michelle in the second row, with Eric at the wheel, sitting next to Kieran.

The poor young man in the back looked very ill, more so than usual. His face was practically the same color as the mountain behind us; that is to say, light green. Kieran was probably not used to the sea, and he was clearly trying not to throw up. I only hoped that he wouldn't puke on Garfield, because the Irishman would not be happy with that. One thing that was very clear was that you should never piss off a strong Irish guy. You would live to regret it.

All of us were shivering, even with my thick fur. Of course, on a day in early fall, in _Alaska,_ on a motorboat, that's to be expected. We'd gotten up fairly early as well, so the sun was only barely peeking above the mountains, even though it was about 8:15 in the morning.

Every time the signal got slower, I ordered Eric to change the angle at which we were travelling. I did this as many times as was necessary in order to get on as consistent a course as possible, while still keeping the beeping at a maximum. Samuel was covering his ears, and I hoped that my friend would be able to forgive me for the abuse I was causing on his sense of hearing. Zoroarks had a heightened sense of sound as well, but not nearly as much so as Lucarios did.

The way it was going, I was just glad to be on our way. After overcoming so many obstacles in order to get here, it was quite something to know that we were only looking for one more thing. One last step on this quest, and then we wouldn't have to worry about Team Jewel again.

I continued focusing on the course we were taking, trying to find the right way. At some points, we had to make turns of up to forty-five degrees in order to navigate through the bay.

Being on a Boston Whaler was such an interesting sensation, too. Every time we hit the smallest of waves, the boat would bounce into the air, but only slightly. Still, it was hell on my knees, which were barely padded even with all of the fur. It would probably have been even worse right after I had been discharged from the hospital, since my ankles and wrists had been chafed from the chains.

In any case, we passed small pieces of ice in the bay, even at this normally ice-free time of year. I supposed it was ice-free, normally, in the lower 48 states, but not up here in Alaska. In the distance, there were some much larger glaciers, some of which were breaking apart in front of our eyes.

All in all, it was a pretty sweet experience.

"Are we getting close?" Malcolm asked.

Eric responded to the young Zorua by saying, "Ask Lucas. He's the one who would know better, I'm just the one driving the boat".

Malcolm tapped me on the shoulder. "How far are we from where we're trying to go?"

I didn't have any good answers to that. The fact was, even though we had to have been on the water for a good hour or so, there was no way for me to tell how far we had left to go.

All I _did_ know was that the beeping was getting faster, which presumably meant that we were getting closer. If I was wrong about that, I was willing to swim all the way back to Seward in Resurrection Bay, _as a human,_ which would probably lead to me dying of hypothermia. Needless to say, I didn't want that.

I wondered, once again, whether I would ever become a human again. Even though it had been cool to be a Zoroark, I was pretty much done with it. All I wanted was to be in my normal body again, and I was also wondering what Samuel looked like. The young man and I had formed such a great bond with each other, and I wondered if he looked anything like what I was imagining.

Would he look somewhat like me? Or would he be completely different in appearance from anything I was expecting?

Soon, the pulsing reached a fever pitch. Looking ahead of us, I saw a field that was probably close to the color that had been mentioned by the Flower Queen. This field was a little bit up the hill from a shore that was perhaps two miles away from us. At a speed of twenty miles an hour, we'd reach there in a tenth of an hour, or six minutes.

"Six minutes, guys!" I said excitedly. "We're going to get this done!"

"Let's save the world!" Malcolm squealed in excitement.

It was indeed hard to overstate the importance of our quest. As cool as the experience was, living several weeks in the body of a Pokemon, I didn't want any others to have to go through it. Besides, the Flower Queen had told us that some of the clothing had far worse curses, some of which could even lead to death. That wasn't exactly a pleasant piece of news.

"The field is up there?" Kieran asked. I could tell that he had been afraid to talk, for fear of throwing up. I wanted to ask him exactly why he was so seasick, but there was most likely a very simple answer to that question.

It was very possible that Kieran Mortimer had simply never been in a motorboat before. That made me feel more than a little bad for the guy.

At this point, I no longer thought of the guy as a killer. Yes, he had killed my mother, but my feelings about her had been so jumbled already that it was also a slight relief that she was gone.

Instead, I thought of Kieran Mortimer as a dying young man who was trying to repent for what he had done. And I was able to look past that, which was impressive for me. Normally, I tended to think the worst of people, regardless of evidence to the contrary.

That was the way things were going. I had to trust the people in my group. If there was no trust, there was nothing.

We alighted about five minutes later. After getting out of the boat, Samuel stared up the hill at the field that was the correct color. "This is where we're going?" he asked.

"Sure looks like it" Kieran replied. "Let's force our way through the trees, find a way in. Look for something on the field that stands out".

The question was, what did Kieran mean by "standing out"? On an island in Alaska where there was most likely no type of modern technology, I assumed that we should look for something artificial, something clearly man-made. Most likely, that would be what the entrance to the factory would look like.

Was this the right island? Certainly, the color was right, or pretty damn close to it. It was possible that we were wrong, but the remote that the Flower Queen had given us had been beeping like crazy.

One thing was clear, however: We were going to have to scour this place very carefully.

* * *

 **KIERAN'S POV**

Bushwhacking is a _very_ accurate word to use. Certainly, I understood why it was called that.

Even though I had spent the last few years living as a hermit in the North Woods of New Hampshire, that didn't mean that I was that familiar with nature. Indeed, I'd spent most of my time since my diagnosis at home. It was only recently that I had found purpose with this quest.

I instinctively knew to avoid touching the plants with my bare body too much. I was afraid of deer ticks, because I knew that they could transmit several diseases to humans, and I didn't want to spend my last few weeks stricken with Lyme disease, or whatever else you could get from deer ticks.

And yes, I _knew,_ with what I felt was absolute certainty, that I did not have long to live. Indeed, I might not even survive the trip into the factory. I might not make it out of Alaska alive.

It was quite fitting, really. The Last Frontier would also be the last frontier of my life. I couldn't have asked for a more poetic ending myself, although I would have liked for it not to be so soon.

But my death would mean nothing if I didn't help my allies in this quest. If I died now, without doing everything I could to be of assistance to them...I didn't want to think about it.

Once we were through the woods, and I had been scraped up by all of the spruce needles, it was time to begin searching.

I wasn't sure what I was looking for. A large switch? A small red button? A neon sign labelled, "SECRET ENTRANCE"?

Imagine my surprise when it was the second one, a mere five minutes after we had commenced our search. The small red button was buried underneath a good deal of grass, which I pushed away before pressing it.

"Guys!" I yelled down the hill.

The other six members of the group came bounding up towards me. The button had not been hard to find, and it was clear to see that a hole about four feet square had opened up at the top of the hill.

"You found it?" Michelle asked, running up to me. Had it been a horse race between the six of them, she would have won the blue ribbon by far. Samuel and Lucas, for having their fit Pokemon bodies, were much slower by comparison.

"Yes, I did" I said. "It's at the top of that hill. Are you up for a short climb?"

Garfield laughed. "After our arduous Quest, I'm more than willing to do this!"

We made our way to the top of the hill, and Lucas was the first one to lower himself into the hole. He let go and fell into darkness.

"I can't hear him down there" Samuel said. "I'm worried about him".

"I'm sure he's fine" Michelle said.

"I'll go next" I said.

Before anyone else could protest, I lowered my legs into the pit. I teetered on the edge, afraid to think about what was down there.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. I pushed myself off of the ledge and plunged into the hole.

The fall was probably about fifteen feet. Although I hadn't been able to see where it ended, there was a trampoline of some sort at the bottom, probably to cushion my fall. At least I wasn't going to die that way.

The next thing I saw was that I was in a room with mattresses lining all six of the walls, if you included the floor and ceiling as walls. Personally, I think it's debatable. There was no denying, however, that it looked kind of like a room in an insane asylum.

Lucas was in one corner of the room, grinning. He might have still been a Zoroark, but I somehow _knew_ that the end of his time as a Pokemon was coming. I wasn't sure how I knew that, but I did.

I got out of the way, moving over next to Lucas, so that the others would not hit us when they came down. That was what we wanted to avoid at all costs.

Soon enough, Eric came down the hole, followed by Malcolm, Michelle, Samuel, and, finally, Garfield. All of us were now in the same room together, and we had to figure out the way to get inside the factory.

I only hoped that we wouldn't have to get out the same way we got in.

* * *

As it turned out, things were going pretty well. We found a part of the wall that, when tapped, would reveal the entrance to a long, dark hallway.

"I kind of like this place" Malcolm said. Then, in a voice that sounded like he didn't care whether or not anyone heard, he said, "Even if it's only because I'm a Dark type".

Of course, none of the rest of us really liked this place. At least, I was pretty sure the others didn't. As for myself, I was fairly ambivalent towards it.

You might ask me why this was. The answer is really quite simple. It was for the same reason that I had always had a certain affinity for Dark and Poison type Pokemon. Somehow, I was finding this more bearable than the others.

This didn't mean that I wasn't vulnerable to claustrophobia at all, however. I didn't like the feeling of being close to two walls on either side of me, although I didn't know if this wasn't because of my subconscious awareness that I would be six feet under pretty soon.

And, suddenly, I felt a stabbing pain in my chest. Nothing was stabbing me, but it felt as though someone had acquired a knife and was twisting it in the upper-right corner of my body, a little below my shoulder blade.

At the same time, I felt like my heart was beating as fast as possible, as though it was trying to get as many beats as possible in within the last few hours of my life.

 _Did I have only hours?_

As soon as I had that thought, another stab of pain sent me to my knees. I was kneeling in a similar pose to the man in the lyric video for "The Crutch" by Billy Talent. I was trying not to cry out in pain, but it was pretty tough with the way I was feeling.

"Are you okay, Kieran?" Eric asked in what sounded like a slight panic. "You look like…". I could tell he was about to say, "Like you're about to die".

Instead, the older man was able to say something else. "You look like you're in a great amount of pain. Are you?"

I nodded. "I'm fine, though" I said, trying to convince myself of it. This didn't mean anything. I still had a few weeks left to live. My prognosis hadn't changed.

"Let's just get through this" Lucas said. Unlike me, he sounded more energetic than usual, standing at his full height at six feet, two inches tall. "Are you okay to keep going, Kieran?"

"Yes" I said. I didn't want to be left here to die. If I fell, I wanted to fall in battle, go out with a bang, you know? I didn't want to just end my life kneeling here like a coward, waiting for death.

Lucas held out his paw, which felt sharp to the touch. At least, the claw part of it did, and I had to avoid touching the point of it. I didn't want to cut myself on Lucas's sharp claws.

He pulled me to my feet, and I was ready to keep on going. "Let's do this" I said.

After that incident, things continued going swimmingly. We walked down the hallway for about ten more minutes, during which I did feel small twinges of discomfort, but not the same level of pain that I had been experiencing before. I continued playing it off, hiding what was really happening to me, simply because I did not want to be left behind. I didn't need the other members of this quest worrying about me any more than they were already.

Eric was leading the way, followed by myself, Lucas, Samuel, Malcolm, Michelle, and Garfield, in that order. The entire time, I was wondering what was going to be at the end of the hallway. Was it going to be a huge boss battle or something like that? Enemies? Nothing but another blank room that looked like one in an insane asylum?

As it turned out, none of these were true.

At the end of the hallway, there was a very large room. Looking around this room, I could once again believe that this place was a factory.

The room was about two hundred feet square, with a ceiling a good fifty feet above us. Even though the lighting was fairly dim, it was easy to see that there were conveyor belts set up at various heights, on which various articles of clothing were being manufactured. Pants, underwear, shoes, socks, shirts...it was all there.

"Wow" Malcolm said. "I've never been in a place this big".

Indeed, it _was_ a big place, but something about it made me feel very nervous. Our luck could not just continue this way. At a certain point, we were probably going to face some Team Jewel grunts or something like that. Much like our mission to rescue Lucas from Team Rocket, I felt that things were going to go downhill, fast.

"Should we split up?" Samuel asked.

When we had done that at the Team Rocket headquarters, things had turned out well enough. We'd been able to teleport Lucas, as well as the rest of us, out of there without too much trouble.

Here, however, I just couldn't be sure. One part of this, of course, was simply because Team Jewel might be defended even better. And, in all of the novels I'd ever read, all of the movies I'd ever seen, splitting up was always the beginning of something very bad happening to the protagonists.

"Sounds like a great idea" Garfield replied.

"Really?" Lucas asked, sounding skeptical of Garfield's judgment.

"We split up to save you, Lucas" Samuel said. "This is no different".

"Let's do this" Eric said. "How about I go with Samuel, Lucas, and Kieran?"

Garfield groaned. "That leaves me with Malcolm and Michelle. Fine".

I felt somewhat frustrated at this. Nobody had asked me what I thought about splitting up. I thought, personally, that it could wind up being a huge mistake for us.

I understood that they might not trust me, not after everything I had done in the past, all of the tendencies I had shown towards not being a very good person. But still, I had figured that they did have faith in me now to help make the decisions.

Evidently, this was not the case. And, as the two groups were heading through the factory warehouse in opposite directions, I got the feeling that one of us might not make it out alive.

Was that going to be me?

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

I had been given practically no veto power on the decision of who would go with whom deeper into the factory. As a result, I was feeling pretty pissed about that.

It wasn't just that, either. I felt that both groups were somewhat mismatched. As much as Samuel had been starting to feel like a brother to me, putting both of us in the same group might have been a mistake. This group had three strong males, albeit with a far less strong fourth male (Kieran), while the other group only had Garfield, with a hyperactive ten-year-old Zorua and my younger sister.

Once again, I began pondering a question that I had had for a while, which was how, exactly, we were going to complete this quest. Was there a button in the bottom of this factory that would shut the whole thing down?

One thing was clear, I realized.

"Eric, let's make sure you stay alive" I said. "You're the one with Mesprit. You're our ticket out".

Eric chuckled. "I suppose that is true, Lucas. I'm definitely not going to go down without a fight. At least, not until we've gotten out of here".

Samuel and Kieran looked at me. The former said, "L3, now might be a good time to start creating illusions".

"What's L3?" I asked the Lucario.

Samuel was clearly trying not to laugh. "It's you. Lucas Leonard London, all three of your names start with the same letter. Have you not had your morning covfefe yet?"

"I'm really not one for jokes, at least not right now" I said, trying to sound as calm as possible. In reality, I was kind of angry with Samuel for potentially distracting us.

"But, illusions, Lucas" Kieran said. "Why don't you make yourself a Lucario?"

I considered it. "I'll do it" I said.

I imagined a large, blue bipedal creature with soft golden fur on its chest, along with a spike. I imagined long blue ears, blue hips, and black leg fur. I imagined large black aura sensing organs on the back of its head.

Then, I imagined myself transforming into that creature. I held my claws together, willing the transformation to take place.

Of course, it wasn't a full transformation. I still felt like a Zoroark, but I looked like a Lucario. I saw that it had worked.

I couldn't celebrate, though. Any laugh, or speech, coming out of my mouth would break the illusion. I definitely didn't want that.

Mentally cursing the fact that the illusion was so fragile, I led the others down the hallway we had just entered. Much like the role I had played in New York City, I was the group's silent, somewhat ghostly leader. To an outsider, it might have looked quite strange, but I was perfectly in the zone doing this.

The walls were mostly made of gray stone and bricks, not looking like anything too spectacular. Really, it was kind of reminiscent of a castle dungeon...not a place that brought back pleasant memory.

I remembered the chafing of the chains, the feeling of weakness as my very life force was being drained out of me. That had been far too recent, and I had to fight the urge to whimper at this. I didn't want to be thought of as a wimp, and I didn't want to remove the illusion. I had to hide my emotions as much as possible.

"Let's see what's at the end of this hallway" Eric said out loud.

"All right" Kieran replied. "Let's do this".

I didn't notice Samuel saying anything. Maybe he was intentionally staying silent, so as to make it look like there were two men and two mute Lucario. I smiled at that, trying not to grin.

When we entered the next room, however, I was blown away at what was there. I had to fight the urge to gasp.

We appeared to be in an underground clothing store. All manners of clothing, such as shirts, socks, pairs of pants, boxers, briefs, scarves, hats, you name it...they were all hung on racks above us. I didn't know why they were there, but they probably did serve some purpose.

Suddenly, Kieran's eyes became wide, as if he had just realized something absolutely earth-shattering. Which, given the immense amount of knowledge that he was seeming to have that we didn't, was more than likely.

"Lucas...Samuel...I advise you put on some clothes" Kieran said to us.

I was skeptical of this. Why would I be willing to put on clothes that might not even fit me as a Zoroark, clothes that might be cursed? Unless…

"Why do you think they should do that?" Eric asked the dying man.

"Because", Kieran said, "I strongly suspect that they're going to turn human again once they step through that door in front of us".

I looked at the door he was referring to. There was a yellow beam of light coming out of it, casting amber light upon the various garments.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

I soon realized my mistake; in talking, I had caused the illusion to dissolve. I no longer resembled a Lucario, my blue fur having been replaced by black and red.

"Yes, I am sure" Kieran said, giggling quietly. "I'm as sure about this as I am about anything else".

The way he was saying it, I was reluctant to trust the dying man. If he was really this close to snuffing it, what reason did I have to trust him? What reason did he have not to create a little chaos, just for fun?

Hopefully, he did have some other purpose for living, even if not for very much longer, other than simply _existing._ If not, I didn't feel very good being around him.

On the other hand, he had given us some pretty good information before. As much as I still hated him for attacking Samuel and myself, I did feel like there was reason to trust him, even if my trust for him was on thin ice.

"Let's do this, Samuel" I said, smiling.

"You're about to find out what I look like" he replied, clearly trying not to laugh.

With that, both of us selected our clothes to put on. Samuel dressed himself in briefs, khaki pants, a red shirt, and also collected socks and a pair of shoes to run in, since he would no longer be a Lucario, assuming Kieran was to be trusted.

I chose boxers, black gym pants, a _Ghostbusters_ T-shirt, and socks as well. It was a tight fit on my large Pokemon body, but I was hopeful that I would shrink down to human size, rather than walk through that door and look like a complete and total idiot on the other side.

"Are you ready?" Kieran asked.

As we both nodded, a lot of thoughts went through my mind.

As unique and eye-opening of an experience being a Pokemon had been, it would all have to end somewhere. I, for one, knew that there were good reasons to want to be a human rather than a Zoroark. For one, I would be able to wear clothes more easily, and I wouldn't have Team Rocket after me. Besides, once we were on the other side of that door, there was a chance that our being human again would enable us to save the world, or at least save it from this one threat.

It was also entirely possible, even probable, that my mother, who, with all of her faults, did not deserve to die, would not have met the fate that she did.

On the other hand, there had been plenty of good things that had come as well. Learning illusions from Eric, the man who had helped organize my rescue from the clutches of Team Rocket. Meeting the family of Greenlakes in the Zoroark village up in Quebec. Waking up in hospital and realizing that our group of seven was pretty tight-knit, having risked everything just for me. That had certainly grown our trust in each other.

But none of that had depended upon my being a Zoroark. Or had it?

"Are you ready, Samuel?" I asked the Lucario, seeing just how excited he was to be a human as well. Samuel Cranmore was grinning like a maniac, and I remembered how the stabbing had been an attempted suicide, Samuel not wanting to live with being a Lucario around his family. That was something I was coming to understand more and more.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" he exclaimed.

I knew that Samuel knew what I looked like, for I had been a human for a couple of days even after he had moved in with my family. I wasn't sure what he looked like, though.

"Let's see if Kieran's right" Eric said. "Walk into the light, but carefully. Hopefully, there aren't huge cannons there that will blast you guys to pieces if you aren't careful".

"Yeah, better to be careful about that" Kieran said, sounding more carefree than usual. Was he at peace with everything?

With that, Samuel and I walked into the light.

As soon as we did, I felt everything change.

My body shrunk slightly in size, while my hair receded into my head. My eyes pretty much stayed the same, although they became smaller. My teeth shrank and became straighter, as my legs lengthened, the black fur changing into a thin forest of brown leg hair. I also felt the structure of my body alter itself as well, back to normal.

I had become a human again.

* * *

 **ERIC'S POV**

As soon as Kieran and I saw Lucas and Samuel walk into the light, I noticed both of them change back into humans.

The younger man, as well as myself, jogged to catch up to them. Immediately, I was glad that they had put on clothes before they had made their retransformation.

Lucas London had turned out to be a tall, broad-shouldered boy with slightly long, fluffy light brown hair and steel blue eyes. He looked fairly handsome, although he could have used a haircut. That hair really was kind of unruly. And, while he did resemble his younger sister in some ways, he had a certain look about him that did make him look nerdy, even without glasses.

Samuel Cranmore, on the other hand, was slightly shorter. Whereas Lucas was 6'2", Samuel was probably about six feet even. He had black hair and green eyes, with glasses as well. For all the world, he kind of looked like Harry Potter, but with no scar on his forehead. He looked like a slightly more handsome version of a stereotypical nerd.

"You guys look good!" Kieran exclaimed. "Not what I pictured your human forms as being like".

"How _did_ you picture us, Kieran?" Samuel asked, shooting the dying man a strange look.

"I don't know. Shorter than that?"

Both boys laughed. "Let's just shut down this factory" Lucas said. His voice seemed to have slightly less confidence, now. He no longer had the usual growling tone of a Zoroark, instead having his deep, albeit still slightly accented, voice.

It was quite something to see, and hear, Samuel and Lucas speak as humans. I had always thought of them as being a Lucario and Zoroark, respectively, even though I had been aware this whole time that they had not been Pokemon originally.

"Guys" Kieran said.

"What is it?" Lucas asked him. "Does it have something to do with...you know what?"

"No" the young man said. "Or, I don't know. It does seem like I have more aura in my system now. That could just be me, though".

"Very different from me, then" Samuel replied. "It seems like I have _less_ aura now, since I'm no longer a Lucario. I still have a little bit left, though".

"Cool" I told him. "Let's go down the hallway, and see where that takes us. Kieran, can you sense anything?"

The dying man seemed to heighten his focus. "Yes. At the end of this hallway, there's something important. Maybe what we're looking for, in order to shut down the factory".

Lucas and I looked at each other, shrugging. I supposed that, if Kieran's aura abilities seemed to point us in this direction, why not follow it?

We continued down the hallway for what seemed to be several minutes. Throughout that whole time, none of us said a word. Our hearts were pounding, we were breathing heavily, and we didn't know what we would face at the end of that corridor.

Then, we saw a spot of light in front of us. We made for it at as fast a pace as the now-humans could tolerate. Clearly, Lucas was used to being a Zoroark, and Samuel was used to being a Lucario. It took some time to acclimate to not having superhuman running abilities, for sure.

Once we were there, we saw the lay of the room. It appeared to be a throne room of some description, with a large teal-and-gold throne, a crimson-and-gold carpet, and orange walls surrounding all of it. It looked like a cathedral, honestly.

Suddenly, Kieran collapsed to the ground.


	21. Metamorphosis

**All right! This is a very short chapter, third shortest, but I'm going to make it worth it. There's only one more after this, and it's quite emotional.**

 **In other news, I am now seventeen years old. Today is my birthday. I can now use magic, if there was such a thing. We've sailed over the 100-review mark as well, which is a pretty awesome birthday present. And, since it's been hot, I actually went swimming for the first time this season. I become practically like an animal in the water, although I'm not a junior lifeguard.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter, which pushes me over the line for 100,000 words in a fanfiction. This puts me and this story in an elite group, that is of the Pokemon fanfictions with six digits in their word count. My favorite Pokemon fanfiction over 100K is** _ **The Return Of The Cursed Gift**_ **by Talkingbirdguy, clocking in at 159,101 words. That's not an insubstantial amount.**

 **I am among the greats now. But we've got to finish this story, so we can get from a tenth of a million to a ninth of a million.**

* * *

 **MICHELLE'S POV**

Where my brother had left off, Kieran had been on the edge of death in the throne room, or at least that's the impression he gave you.

Never mind that. Let's focus on what was going on at the same time as his group had been going down that hallway, its two teenagers having transformed back into human beings.

Malcolm, Garfield, and myself were running down the hallway, trying to figure out how to get to the center of the factory. I was figuring that this would be where we would find the button, or whatever it would be, that would shut down the factory for good.

Not for the first time, I felt that the groups we had been split up into were not fair. Three strong guys, albeit with one who was weak and dying, were all in the same group, which might not have been the wisest choice for Eric to assign into a group together.

As we rounded a corner, everything was chaos.

Several grunts wearing a Team Jewel uniform had been lying in wait for us. For the most part, these were tall, burly young men wearing what looked like a black version of temple garments, except that these had an emerald green **J** etched onto them, in a way that reminded me of Team Rocket.

I didn't know what to do. We were definitely the weaker of the two groups. I mean, what did we really have? Myself, a hyperactive ten-year-old Zorua, and Garfield O'Shannon, who, admittedly, was a pretty strong guy. However, he had no Pokemon with him. He was all by himself, helping the two of us.

Then, something happened that made me feel a lot more confident in the way things were going.

Malcolm, as if shot out of a cannon, began sprinting over to the grunts, using physical attacks on them. I'd never known him to have such strength, and he really was being pretty impressive with the way he was using it.

Biting onto one of the grunt's legs, he spun the grunt around and around in circles, much like Mario does to Bowser. When the grunt had suffered so many swirls that he lost consciousness, Malcolm threw him out of the way.

Doing this to the other guards definitely helped us get through the group of them. As soon as that had been done, Malcolm stumbled, looking as though he was about to collapse from exhaustion. And I wasn't the strongest person, so I didn't like the idea of having to carry him to our goal.

Then, all of a sudden, Malcolm glowed with a dark red light. He seemed to stop in his tracks, but then I gasped at what was happening.

He seemed to be growing...bigger. And there were many changes coming onto his now-larger body.

Malcolm was evolving.

I had never witnessed an evolution happen in real life. I'd seen Pokemon come to school one day as a Vulpix and be a Ninetails the next, for instance. However, I'd never seen the actual act of transforming from a pre-evolved form to another. Really, it was quite something.

Malcolm grew in size until he was roughly five feet tall, growing the large crimson ponytail that was common to all Zoroarks. His fangs became longer, and I saw a grin on his face. This was the moment he'd been waiting for!

His claws grew longer and sharper as well, and Malcolm Greenlake looked far more intimidating. Soon, it was clear that he was now a Zoroark, a big step for a Zorua on its way to becoming an adult.

"Nice!" he said, pushing his claws towards each other. "I feel great! Malcolm the Zoroark!"

Malcolm went bounding down the hallway, and Garfield and I had a difficult time in keeping up with him. For the most part, we were just trying to keep him within our sights. Although it wasn't difficult to find the way we were supposed to go, since the hallway only went in one direction, the guy was fast.

Even though Malcolm was now a Zoroark, he seemed to be no less rambunctious than he had been before. He seemed pretty enthusiastic about where this quest was going, and I only wished that I could have shared his excitement. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

For one, I didn't know what we would face once we reached the center of the factory. If it was as simple as just shutting the place down, I felt pretty good about that. However, if we were actually going to be having a boss fight or something like that, I was pretty nervous.

"Do you think Lucas and Samuel are going to turn back human?" I asked Garfield.

"Honestly, Michelle, I don't know" the Irishman said. "It's very much possible that they will, or they might not. Really, there's no way to tell, you know? Hopefully, once this Quest is over, things will somewhat return to normal".

He wouldn't say whether or not that meant that the two boys would become humans again, but I got a feeling that he did. I just wanted to believe that he was right, even though it was difficult to. I'd only known him for a week or so, and I already trusted him quite a bit. After all, he'd helped us save my brother, a deed for which I was eternally grateful.

After three minutes of running, we saw a square of light up ahead. Was this a new room, or just a mirage?

Yes, I was sick of all of these boring, dark hallways. I wanted to see something different after so long, and I was greatly enthused by the sight of something that wasn't more stone.

As soon as we entered the room at the end of the corridor, I saw that it was a throne room of some description, or at least appeared to be. The throne was teal in color with a golden yellow trim, while the carpet was crimson with the same gamboge borders. It looked like a room fit for a king.

And my brother was there. Fully human. He was wearing black gym pants and a _Ghostbusters_ T-shirt. His usual unruly light brown hair was present, and he had shrunk to his normal size. Not only that, but he was standing next to a boy who looked about his age.

Was that...the human version of Samuel Cranmore? Man, he was handsome, even if he did look like Harry Potter without the scar on his forehead. For whatever reason, I really liked this look.

"Hey, guys. I see you turned back human!" I said to my brother.

"Yeah" Lucas replied. "Kieran's not doing too well, though. The instant we got in here, he just collapsed. I'm worried about him".

I looked over at the man my brother was talking about. Kieran Mortimer, whom we had all known was slowly dying, was kneeling on the ground, as if praying, desperately trying to catch his breath. Every exhale sounded like a dragon with a sore throat.

"Are you okay, Kieran?" Malcolm asked him.

Eric chuckled, although he had been keeping an eye on Kieran at all times. "I see that our little friend evolved. That said, he doesn't know not to bother Kieran".

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked.

"I'm...dying" Kieran rasped, sounding worse with every syllable. I could tell that he was trying to get back into a standing position, in order to die with more dignity, but I got the feeling that he wasn't going to be able to.

Kieran Mortimer was dying right before our eyes.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

Even though all seven of us had been reunited, and my sister looked no worse for wear, and we were humans again, _and_ Malcolm had evolved, I wasn't exactly walking on sunshine. Indeed, things looked pretty bleak for one member of our group.

Kieran was breathing heavily, clutching his chest as though he was having a heart attack. Which, quite possibly, he was. Of course, I couldn't be sure of this, but he certainly didn't look like he was having an easy time staying conscious.

"Thanks...guys" he gasped.

Garfield patted him on the back. "Don't focus too much on talking, Kieran. Just focus on breathing. You're going to be _fine_ ".

"No, I'm not" Kieran replied, sounding reinvigorated by the falsehood that Garfield had just said. "You know as well as everybody that I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and my life expectancy is short. Plus, my doctor told me that my death would feel something just like this".

"Really?" I asked. "You don't even get to die in your sleep?"

Samuel shot me a look that said that he wasn't impressed with that. This was something I supposed I understood. Such a joke had been in bad taste, particularly with what was happening with Kieran.

"It's okay, Lucas. I'm at peace with this. I've known for years that I was going to die young. I had just...wanted to create a little chaos on my way out. But I realized…".

Kieran sank into a coughing fit, and I could barely make out his next words after he emerged a good fifteen seconds later.

"...that it was more important to do something good with the time I had left. I swear to Arceus, I wasn't deceiving you guys at all. I was being genuine".

"That's good to hear, Kieran" Eric said. "I didn't know why you were attacking us, honestly, that day back in Quebec".

The young man coughed again. "Simple. Create a little chaos...that was it. I was able to sense your position on that hill thanks to my aura sensing abilities. It's...possible...that this was a gift Arceus gave me in exchange for my disease. Can't say it was worth it" he said, half chuckling, half hacking.

"Your life was worth it, Kieran" Garfield said, patting the gaunt man on the back. "Without you, I highly doubt we would have been able to complete this quest".

"You still need to shut down the factory" Kieran said, barely louder than a whisper. I had hearing that was better than it had been during my childhood, but not as well as it had been during my time as a Zoroark.

"How can we do that?" Samuel asked. The more I looked at him, the more nerdy he looked, and I wondered if he was as much of a social outcast as I had been at school. One thing was clear: Once I got back to school, I would be far less of a social outcast. Indeed, I'd be anything _but_ one, with people clamoring to speak to me about my adventures. I would have to decide how forthcoming I would be willing to be about that.

"There's a large red button somewhere in this throne room" the dying man rasped. "If you press it, you will shut down this factory once and for all. Things are going to be good. I'm sad that I won't...be there...to see it with you".

I couldn't help it. I felt a tear making its way down my face, and I started holding Kieran's hand. It was already starting to cool down.

"Go, Lucas London. I'm sorry...I caused...such trouble…".

After that, his hand went limp in mine, and he collapsed even further. There was no sign of life left in his eyes.

With that, Kieran had died. There was no way around that fact. Although he hadn't sacrificed himself to save us, or to help complete our quest, I knew that this had to have all been worth it, somehow. He had done so much to help us with everything that I somehow had a hard time believing he was dead.

But still, the fact remained. There was no way around it; one of the members of our group had perished of an illness that none of us had done anything to be able to prevent. And yet, our quest was going to be so easy to complete. All we had to do was have someone press the big red button and shut down this factory. After that, there would be no more humans turning into Pokemon, no more humans dying after putting on luxurious clothing…

"I'll do it" Malcolm said. The Zoroark had clearly been affected by Kieran's death, but perhaps not quite as much as I had been. To his credit, he wasn't crying; he was still focused on the task at hand.

Malcolm ran over to the red button on the wall next to the throne and jammed his claw into it.

* * *

 **ERIC'S POV**

As soon as Malcolm had pressed the button, the throne room started shaking like a plane with a very high level of turbulence. Not a place that you would want to spend a lot of time in, that was for sure.

As disappointing as it might have been that Kieran's body was about to get crushed by the immense weight of stone that was about to come crashing down on us, we had no option but to let that happen.

Lucas and the others, who had been crowding around Kieran's corpse, ran over to me. Using Mesprit, I was able to teleport us out of the factory and back to the beach.

We had done it. I could have kissed the ground once we were out of there. Our quest had been successful, after all. There seemed to be little else to worry about.

"Let's take the boat back" Samuel said, sounding despondent. "Find a way back to the mainland, then to Ted Stevens Airport. How far can your Mesprit teleport? Can we go all the way back to New England?"

I thought about it for a second, looking at the forested mountains along the shore, the light waters of Resurrection Bay, the town of Seward far away. "Not that far" I replied. "We might have to fly".

* * *

 **A VERY short chapter, but the next one will likely be the longest in the entire story. It'll need to be 9.5K words or so in order to get me over the line of 110,000 that I'm shooting for. Even so, I'm in that smaller category now of 100+K stories now, so that's pretty awesome.**

 **With that, Seventeen-year-old SnowLucario is out.**


	22. Everything Is Wonderful Now

**Man, it's been hot. And this is the final, and longest, chapter in the story. At the bottom of this page, you will have finished reading Zoroark's Pendant. There will be more information there.**

 **I initially uploaded this chapter on June 14, but I realized that this was probably too fast of an upload time. If I were to write a sequel, I would probably limit the amount of words I would write per day.**

 **And I had a pretty good birthday. Plenty of well-wishers, which I'm grateful for. And I've no longer got the Trace. Still no driver's license, but I don't feel the need to drive anywhere at the moment. I got my buffs, too.**

 **In addition, if you still want to join my Discord, but have not yet, just PM me and I'll give you the code. I hope that you guys will enjoy this chapter. For any mistakes I make regarding dates, I wish that you will not lynch me.**

 **Let's get this show on the road!**

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

We ended up taking the boat all the way back to Seward. It was a shorter trip than I had remembered, but maybe it only felt shorter now that we had not been hanging on to every single second. I knew that adrenaline could make many moments feel longer than they really had been, since you're so focused on living in the moment.

Nobody in the group really talked that much. I was still feeling grief about Kieran's death, and a slight amount of guilt, even though I knew, deep down, that it wasn't my fault in the least. It had just been his time to go, and maybe Arceus had even made it so that his aura sensing abilities were a compromise for giving him such a short lifespan.

Personally, I didn't see exactly _why_ that could make up for only living to be 24 years old, but it's been said that God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps Arceus's ways were even more mysterious.

But we'd saved the world. I had expected to be walking on sunshine, feeling complete and unadulterated joy at completing this quest. There was to be no more worrying about Team Jewel, or Team Rocket for that matter. Everything was wonderful now, or so it seemed.

Of course, that Everclear song wasn't about things actually _being_ wonderful. It was about a kid's parents getting divorced, and he's telling his parents not to pretend that everything is wonderful now. My parents had, by all accounts, loved each other, and they had been separated by death rather than divorce. Now that my mother's killer was also dead, I no longer sought revenge. It wasn't like I hadn't had conflicted feelings about my mother dying, after all.

Even if I didn't care too much about my mother, partly because she was largely apathetic about _me,_ it was never a good thing when someone close to you died.

For the most part, I tried to enjoy the ocean breeze. It felt a lot more severe now that I no longer had a thick layer of black fur to protect me against it. I could feel my teeth chattering, in fact. There was a certain level of satisfaction that this brought, even if I was freezing.

By the time we got back to Seward, my hair, which was frequently unruly in the best of circumstances, had been blown into an even crazier style. It was the same with Samuel and Michelle, who were now holding hands, as though they were a couple.

 _Were they a couple?_ I had never really considered the possibility that seriously, but, the more I thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

"Let's get this boat back to where we got it from" Eric said. "I don't want to be guilty of stealing something. We've already dealt with Team Rocket and Team Jewel, we don't need to deal with the police".

"Indeed" replied Garfield.

After we had gotten the boat back to the harbor, we walked into town for some lunch. There was nothing like a fight to the death, even if it wasn't _that_ intense, to stimulate your appetite.

As we sat down in a booth in the diner, I thought even more about the quest. We had done what we had set out to do, but lost some things in the process. I knew, for instance, that I was going to have to make up a great deal of schoolwork, which was going to be a pain in the neck for sure.

One other thing I was wondering was where I was going to live. My house had been destroyed by Kieran, and there was now no way we were going to live there. Most likely, my father had rented an apartment or something, and that was the way it was going to go. If so, it was going to be tough to face him after my mother had died. That was one thing I wasn't looking forward to.

While I was on the quest, I had always figured that it would be amazing once things were all completed, once everything went back to normal, once I was no longer going through all manner of life-threatening situations. However, I was quickly realizing that that was not to be.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

* * *

"We're going to stay the night in Seward before heading to Anchorage. Then, we're going to fly to Montreal, drop off Malcolm, and you guys are going to head down to New Hampshire".

That was the plan Eric told us. As we sat on our beds in a hotel room, this was what I thought about. Normally, I'm one of those people who loves to get home after a really long trip. However, I was well aware that things would not be normal. They would never be normal again, at least not in the sense I was used to. I was going to have to adjust to a new normal, one I wasn't sure that I would like.

"I wish that we could have just stopped Kieran from dying" Michelle replied. "I kind of feel guilty about that".

"Don't feel guilty about it, Michelle" Garfield replied. "The way it was going, he had no chance of surviving. You know that full well".

That's my sister for you. She cares a lot about other people, more than I can say about myself. Of _course_ she cared that Kieran had died, because that was just the way she was.

I, of course, did not really feel the same way. I had grown to trust, maybe even _respect,_ the man a little more, but it had been a long, winding road in order to get there that had involved him attempting to kill me and _actually_ killing my mother? No doubt, it would be hard to get along with my father now, even more so than it had been before.

My feelings about Kieran dying were even more conflicted than they had been about my mother dying. I had an angel on my right shoulder that was telling me, "Of _course_ you should care, Lucas! He's dead, and he helped save your life!", and a devil on my left shoulder that was telling me, "Good riddance! That was only after he tried to take it, _and_ took your mother's!"

Sometimes, I just wanted both sides to shut up. I wanted to be able to think about this objectively and rationally, without having two figurative supernatural forces fighting over which direction I was going to incline my soul, if that makes any sense.

We continued to eat our room-service cheeseburgers with fries, making only occasional conversation. The mood was pretty subdued, much like Ender probably felt after figuring out he had destroyed the _actual_ buggers rather than the _simulations_ of them.

What I mean is, I had never thought that shutting down the base would involve killing all of the other people inside of it. I wondered how many Mesprits, Kirlias, or other Psychic types had been present in that building, but the number was likely not very high. If you hadn't been able to teleport out of that place, you were done for dinner.

Was I a murderer? I couldn't be, because the word _murder_ implied that you had intentionally been killing those people, just for fun. Well, maybe not for _fun,_ but not for a cause such as saving the world. Were the members of Team Jewel just pawns, made to do the leader's bidding, or were they fully complicit?

I had a feeling I knew the answer to that question. The odds were that they were at least _partly_ complicit, and had done what they had done out of their own free will. Even so, the answer to this question, or perhaps not having an answer, whichever was more painful, would haunt me for the rest of my life.

* * *

The next day, we paid a local man to drive us up to Ted Stevens International Airport, about an hour and a half. Getting picked up for hitchhiking was probably the least of our worries at this point. Definitely, I was in a place beyond caring about that. I had gone through so much, including two and a half weeks spent as a Zoroark, that I honestly didn't think that police could faze me.

The entire drive was spent in silence. We didn't want to let the man driving us know anything he didn't need to about the quest we had just been on. We didn't want to parade the fact that two members of our party had once been Pokemon, and were now humans again. That just wasn't something you tossed out so casually.

Once we were at the airport, we went through security just like normal, Eric making sure that all five of his Pokeballs were present, and then we got to the gate. Soon, we were thirty thousand feet in the air, on a seven-hour flight from Anchorage to Montreal, from one uncertainty towards another.

During the flight, I had my head in my hands for most of the time. To an outsider, it might appear that I was fighting not to be sick from the turbulence; however, that wasn't it at all. It wasn't my stomach that was feeling sick; it was my heart.

Not my _literal_ heart, my figurative one. Sometimes, however, the latter was worse.

Much worse.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

The sun had already gone down by the time we touched down in Montreal. This wasn't surprising, since we had moved four time zones eastward. Even so, I was shocked at just how dark it had gotten. There weren't too many stars visible, since we hadn't hit astronomical dusk yet, and because we were close to a city.

Eric, it transpired, always had a car that he kept near the airport, in a special reserved section of the multi-level parking garage. "I'm always prepared for anything" he said. "That includes things like this. They always assume that someone's on a _really_ long trip, but that's not always the case".

Indeed, this whole quest had felt interminable at times. It seemed that it would never end, especially when Lucas had been captured by Team Rocket and we were searching desperately for him, or when we had waited for him to recover in the hospital afterwards.

The flight, in addition, felt like it took forever. Even if it was only seven hours, it hadn't been fun. At least we were both humans now, so that we wouldn't be as uncomfortable as we _could_ have been. Even so, I couldn't wait for it to be over.

The plan was to drop Malcolm off at his parents' house, where we expected to be lauded very much for helping to keep the now-Zoroark safe. Then, we were going to be driven to the apartment building that Lucas's father had rented an apartment in. Eric had talked with Caleb London over the phone during the drive, making sure that it was okay. Evidently, it was fine for me to continue living with Lucas and Michelle, something I was very much looking forward to, even if it would be with his apathetic father.

As for Eric, he lived in the village, but he was willing to drive the three of us through the night. According to the oldest member of our group, it would probably be about three in the morning by the time we reached Hanover. He didn't want me, a relatively new driver, to be the one driving us through the dark White Mountains, so I understood that.

Just like the drive from Seward to Anchorage, the drive from Montreal to the village in which Eric and Malcolm lived was spent in silence. All of us were exhausted from the flight. Indeed, Malcolm, normally so boisterous and energetic, had actually fallen asleep in the backseat. His ponytail was getting in my face, but I didn't care too much, since my glasses were protecting my eyes. I was okay with letting him sleep.

By the time we had arrived in the village, the stars had all come out. Myself, Lucas, Michelle, and Eric all escorted Malcolm to his house, which we were all able to recognize just the same as always. I wasn't sure exactly why that was, since it didn't look too different from any of the others, particularly since it was so dark out.

Garfield stayed in the car, saying that he didn't want to introduce himself to the Greenlakes. Something about being antisocial, which might have had something to do with the fact that he had never met the Greenlakes. Personally, I kind of agreed with him. After all, since he was a very large man, he might be intimidating, and he didn't want that.

It was getting pretty late, but Carla was to the door almost immediately. As soon as she saw her son, the blue-haired Zoroark exclaimed, "Malcolm! You made it! I'm so proud of you!"

Jason stepped in at just that moment as well. "And you evolved as well! Nice job, son", patting his son on the back. Both of the Greenlake parents were clearly very happy to see that their son had survived his quest.

"Where's Kieran? The man with gray hair?" Carla asked, noticing that he wasn't there.

Eric and myself stared at each other. Both of us, in that moment, seemed to understand each other. Perhaps it was from questing together, but I knew what I was going to say.

"He died. Earlier today, in fact" I said. "I'm Samuel Cranmore, by the way. Both myself and Lucas transformed back in the middle of the factory".

"And so you are Lucas" Jason said, staring at my companion. "Taller than I expected. Longer hair than I expected. I want to thank you very much for helping to keep Malcolm safe. It's a shame that it had to come at the expense of another member of your party".

Malcolm waved his claws in a dismissive gesture. "The way it was going, he was going to die anyways. Hyp...hyper-tro...what was it?"

"Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy" said Eric. "Kieran had that, and he wasn't going to live much longer regardless. Don't feel bad about it".

"Hard not to" Jason said. "But, trust me, I am eternally grateful for my son being safe. And, while I doubt he'll be going on any other quests anytime soon, I do think that he is destined for great things. And you made that all possible".

The sleepy Malcolm walked over to his parents, and the three Zoroarks all embraced in a hug that seemed to go on forever. It almost made me cry, I'll admit, looking at how much the three of them loved each other. It was true parent-child love at its finest. Sometimes, this type of love was underrepresented, I felt, in fiction. They always seemed to emphasize romantic love instead of this, which I somehow felt was purer.

And, suddenly, I felt a stab of emotion. Although I was no longer a Lucario, I could still read auras to a much more limited degree. I supposed that there were still going to be some residual effects from the necklace, in order for it to be a proper curse. If removing it had been as easy as heading to the clothing factory in Alaska, there had to be some sort of a catch.

Anyway...the emotion I had felt seemed to be emanating from Michelle. Was she...attracted to me at all? Was there any way for me to tell?

Impossible. I was always a social outcast, perhaps even more so than Lucas London was. Michelle was, by comparison, a social butterfly, one of the popular girls from her school, and this would no doubt increase after having been gone on her quest. People would be clamoring in order to be able to know where she had been, what she had done, and why she had done it.

I leaned over to Michelle and hugged her. She reciprocated it, and I was starting to think that there might be something brewing between the two of us. Whether it was an actual romance or just a closer friendship, I was very much looking forward to seeing where this was going to go, if we might become more than just friends.

"Also" Eric said, trying to take everyone's eyes off of our hug, "There is a young man who has announced his intention to move into the village. His name is Garfield O'Shannon. He's a very large man, but he means nobody in this village any harm. Can he still be allowed to move in?"

"That's not my place to decide" Carla said. "I think you're an authority on that, and, if he wants to move in, you can decide, or your colleagues can. You are on the village's board of directors, right?"

"That is correct" Eric replied. "I will allow Garfield to live in the village. Are there any empty houses in which to place him?"

"Yes" Jason said. "In fact, there's one five houses over from us. That's where he'll live, if he so chooses".

"I have little doubt he will".

After the two shook hands, the rest of us were escorted back to the car, in which Eric was going to drive us all the way back down to Hanover. I really did feel bad for him, since he'd likely be spending the next eleven or twelve hours driving. However, I was also glad that he was doing that. I definitely felt far too tired to drive Lucas and Michelle home.

I only hoped that things would go well once we were there.

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

By the time we reached the apartment building in which my father had rented living space, it was about three in the morning. Samuel, Michelle, and myself had all fallen asleep in the back, and we were awoken by Eric announcing, "Okay, guys. We're here".

I looked at the building. It wasn't a high-rise; it had four stories, including the first floor, which I assumed was the lobby. I might have passed by this building once or twice on the way to school. To my father's credit, this building was only half a mile from the school. At least he'd found a place that was convenient.

"I'm liking this place" I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. The only problem was that I was exhausted and feeling kind of cranky, not to mention anxious about the amount of schoolwork I was going to make up, in addition to the way my father was going to speak to me about the death of my mother.

"He lives in Apartment 433, on the fourth floor" said Eric. "Just ring the doorbell, and he'll come if he's already awake. If not, ring it until he wakes up. He is expecting you".

As soon as he had said that, he got back inside the car and drove off into the night, leaving my friend and sister with me.

"Let's get in there and see what Dad has to say to me" I said. "I bet he's going to be pissed".

"I really doubt it, Lucas" Samuel told me. "He knows it wasn't your fault. It was that asshat Kieran's fault, and I have no problems speaking ill of the dead, unlike some people".

As soon as the doorbell had been rung, my father came to the door. He looked the same as always, but he didn't have his glasses on. He was also wearing only his underwear, since that was what he slept in. Evidently, he'd gotten out of bed in order to answer the door, because he looked bleary-eyed and exhausted.

"Lucas!" he spat. "Into the kitchen! Now!"

He showed Michelle and Samuel to the bedroom, which had three twin beds all set up. Since the Londons are a tall family, it was inadequate, and I figured that it was not going to get any better anytime soon.

After that, my father led me into the kitchen, which was a simple table built for four people next to a cooking alcove.

I did not know what to expect. I assumed that I was going to be yelled at, maybe even spanked, although he had never done that to me before. No matter what, I knew that my father was not going to be happy with me. "So" my father said. "What happened when the house was burned down?"

I saw no reason to lie to him. After all, the truth completely vindicated me and incriminated a dead man. I wasn't afraid of it, but maybe my father would be.

Whatever. Real fathers wouldn't accuse me like this when they _knew_ I wasn't at fault in the least. I decided, at least for the moment, not to think of him as my father. I didn't know how much he had ever cared about me, but there was no love in those steel blue eyes. Only fear, and anger.

"It's simple. Kieran came with his Poison army-".

"Who's Kieran?"

"He was a man who attacked us, but later joined up with us" I said, trying not to let exasperation creep into my voice.

"You say he _was_...did he die?"

"Yes, he did" I said. "He had a heart condition that he told all of us about before he died. I wasn't responsible for him dying".

"Why did you join up with a man who had attacked you?" my dad all but roared. "I thought I had raised you better than that!"

I paused. How could I explain to this man _everything_ that had happened? He'd think that I was absolutely insane, and probably commit me to a mental institution or something. I definitely didn't want that to happen, but I saw no solution to this problem that wouldn't make him think me a lunatic.

"I can't tell you that" I finally said. "I'll just say that we trusted him. He told us things that made us trust him, and he wasn't deceiving us. In the end, he died a hero".

"In what way was he a hero, Lucas? What was this quest of yours for?"

"To save the world" I said blunty. Immediately, I realized that I had made a mistake. To someone like my father, who is a self-professed "realist", when someone says that they went on a quest to _save the world,_ it sounds like something out of a fictional universe, sounding much more _Maximum Ride_ than _Lucas London._

"I can't believe you let him destroy our home, Lucas. This apartment cost me a lot of money, and it's hard for me to keep two of you. Plus this guy, Samuel...I just don't know how it's going to work. I know that we'll have to make ends meet somehow, but we are no longer an upper middle class family".

At first, I didn't get what he was saying. Then, I knew what he meant. He was alone, left to care for three teenagers rather than only two; three teenagers, moreover, whom had gotten back home at three in the morning, claiming to have been on a quest to save the world. His wife of twenty years had also been killed right before his son had left. This had probably served to make him even less emotionally stable than he had already been.

Based on that, I could understand that he was upset and skeptical. I got that. That didn't mean that I liked it, but I at least understood where he was coming from.

But that didn't excuse treating me this way.

"Go to bed, Lucas" my father said, sighing. He put his glasses back on, rubbing his forehead. "You've gotta get up in three hours to go to school, anyway. You don't want to fall too far behind in your education".

I knew that he was right. Given that my mother was now dead, it was likely that my high school would have allowed me to take a couple of bereavement days, but we hadn't announced that to them. The way it was going, I probably would have been assumed to be a truant. I didn't want to miss any more school than I already had.

As soon as I had taken my shoes off, I climbed into my bed, which was far too short for my legs. My feet hung off of the other end. That wasn't the least of my problems, however.

It would have been bad enough if it was just the bed, or just my dad being mad at me. Indeed, he was probably so livid that he would have disowned me if it had not been illegal to do so until my eighteenth birthday, which would be June 29 of the following year.

But it _wasn't just that._

More annoying was the fact that I had literally gone from hero to zero, in a _day._ I had gone from being one of the main heroes of the quest, one of the people who had helped to save the world from a criminal organization, to...just me. Just Lucas London, a socially awkward young man who had trouble connecting with his fellow humans.

As soon as my head touched the pillow, I was confused as to why I wasn't able to fall asleep. I needed what little I could get desperately, because I only had three hours until I would absolutely have to get up. Even in spite of that, however, it just wasn't possible for me to drift off.

At a certain point, I simply had to accept that this would be a sleepless night.

* * *

 **SAMUEL'S POV**

I don't know how much sleep Lucas or Michelle got, but I only managed to get an hour. I still had so many memories of the quest that it was just ridiculous to even _try._ And, at a certain point, I hardly even cared. Unlike Lucas, I was pretty happy with the way things were going.

Even so, it pained me the way Lucas's father treated his own son. He was speaking pretty harshly to him about something that was very clearly not his fault.

Tomorrow, I would be starting school up once again. However, since today was some Jewish holiday that my school commemorated, even though the schools Lucas and Michelle went to did not, I had the day off. I decided to use it to get some much-needed sleep.

However, I wasn't able to sleep as much as I had thought. After a few hours, I had slept as much as I could. The way it was going, it was as though the extra aura that had remained in my system even after my detransformation into a human was keeping me awake.

And so I was forced to stay awake, looking outside my bedroom window. I didn't particularly want to talk to Lucas's father, because I had always seen him as kind of a jerk. I wasn't a fan of him. Even if Lucas was not a target of abuse, I was still pissed off at Caleb London for not treating his son better after coming back from such a huge quest.

And I knew that I was going to have to do even more catch-up work than Lucas and Michelle. After all, I had missed school while I was in the hospital after stabbing myself (something that I was now glad had not killed me, because life was worth living, and the outcome of this quest had proven it), and during the time I was with Lucas.

All throughout the quest I had been missing school. Hopefully, I would not have to completely redo junior year, but, given my luck, it was going to happen. I never got this lucky.

As I occasionally watched cars pass our apartment by, I pondered how Lucas was holding up. It was no secret to me that he wasn't exactly binge-eating fruit from the Super Happy Tree. Indeed, he seemed to be hanging his head low, seeming completely and totally down-and-out.

Maybe that was just because of being tired and hungry. Maybe, once he got some food in his stomach, and let his brain rest, he'd feel good as new again. He'd be like his old self, the cheerful Lucas that I had become good friends with. Maybe, one he was back to normal in terms of physical strength, his emotional strength would also be up.

I could hope. But that might not be the case. And, the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it likely _was not_ the case.

Once Lucas and Michelle got home from school, I felt more attracted to her than I ever had before. And, based on her facial expressions, the feelings were reciprocated.

* * *

And so the two of us started dating. We weren't getting too intimate yet, not since we were both under Caleb London's roof. Considering the way he was treating Lucas, it was quite something that he was even willing to house Michelle and myself. As long as things didn't get NSFW (an acronym for "not safe for work"), I was sure that the man would be okay with it.

I hadn't been sure when I had noticed that Michelle was my unspoken girlfriend. I supposed that our romance had just popped up out of nowhere. I wasn't sure why that was, but I wasn't going to question it.

The long-suffering Lucas, to his credit, was content to be our third wheel. Of course, he wasn't going to date either of us, but it must have been awkward to, on one occasion about two weeks after returning from Alaska, witness the two of us having our first kiss. And, to his credit, he had only blushed a little bit.

Since we went to different schools, we didn't have too much time to be together. Only in the evenings could we truly show that we loved each other. However, that was more than fine with me, not least because it also conferred an advantage, which was that we did not need to go to all the work with hiding it from the other students.

Honestly, I was happy with this. I liked both of my relationships that I was in, even if only one was romantic, that one being with Michelle. The relationship with Lucas might have only been platonic, but we understood each other in a way that only two teenage boys that had turned into Pokemon could.

And now I was looking at the flower. Somehow, it had reappeared in a jar next to Lucas's bed. Now that I had met the Flower Queen herself, I knew the secret of the flower. It was enchanted to follow its master everywhere. Had Lucas become the Flower King?

I mean, Lucas was clearly its master. That flower had followed him into Team Rocket's lair, into a hospital room, and into Alaska. If Lucas wasn't the flower's master, then everything the Flower Queen had been telling us had to have been a lie. There was just no other way that everything would have checked out so well.

So why was Lucas still so unhappy?

* * *

 **LUCAS'S POV**

As the weeks passed, the leaves continued to change color and fall to the ground. The weather began to grow chillier and chillier, and the wind was becoming harsher.

These were all normal changes, things that you would expect to be happening with the changes in season. However, there was one thing going on that was _not_ normal for me.

My favorite season was typically the fall. I liked things getting gradually crisper, as well as the brightly-colored leaves on the trees and the ground. However, not this year. This year, I was feeling pretty down.

You would have thought that, the way things had been going on the quest, I would have been overjoyed that it was over. That I was safe at home in New Hampshire, not having to worry too much about ever going anywhere that would be likely to be dangerous. You really would think that I'd be happy about this.

However, you would be wrong. As the weeks had gone by, I had realized that I had never felt more _alive_ than those days that I had spent travelling the continent with Samuel, Michelle, Kieran, Malcolm, Eric, and Garfield. Knowing that I might never see four of those people again was tough to handle. Of course, there was one of those people that I would _never_ see again, and that was Kieran. Even with all of the jumbled feelings I had always had about him, I knew that it would be tough for me to get over his death.

And that was the problem. For me, nothing could equal that joy I had felt. That adrenaline coursing through my veins. Truth be told, being a Zoroark had been a pretty awesome experience. Shocking Zach with my illusion as being an Eevee had also been pretty enjoyable. And I would never get that joy again.

My life, from here on out, was likely to be fairly boring and disappointing. At first, I had thought that a boring life would be exactly enough for me. Nothing more, nothing less would be needed for my satisfaction. I had never thought that I would need to keep going on adventures in order to fulfill some sort of addiction.

The extra work I had to do in order to catch up with the rest of the class was also pretty painful. Having saved the world had been the highest of highs, like standing at the top of Mount Everest and seeing everything below you. In terms of moods, that was a pretty good analogy for the way I had felt.

However, if my mood then had been the top of Mount Everest, my mood right now was at the bottom of the Dead Sea. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but, for someone who had been going through something that had been so stressful at times, I really would have thought that I'd be happier once it was over.

Was I suicidal? No, but I certainly felt as though I was going to not be able to go on at a certain point. I didn't have much post-traumatic stress, even though I would occasionally wake up and check my left arm for an IV tube, until realizing that my blood wasn't being drained, or that I wasn't in a burning train car on the Alaskan Railroad.

I might have been depressed. Maybe even to the point that I had some sort of disorder, but I didn't want to go and get it checked out. I might get diagnosed with PTSD, even though, like I said above, that would not be accurate at all. If there was something like post-quest depression disorder, PQDD, that might be a lot more similar to the way I was feeling.

One evening in early November, I was kneeling in front of the window, fighting back tears. All I could think about was how it was all over. The quest was all over, and it was never coming back. No longer did I have anything to distract me from day-to-day life.

I might have shed a tear or two, because I had opened my mouth enough for a drop of something to slip in, and it tasted pretty salty. Indeed, that was what must have happened.

"Are you okay, Lucas?" said the voice of Samuel Cranmore.

I looked, somewhat embarrassed, behind me at the bespectacled boy who had just entered the room. He didn't look much happier than me, but I knew why he was there. Maybe he had heard me whimper, or seen some reason to think that I was depressed. Perhaps he was uncomfortable with me being close to the window.

"Yeah, I'm fine" I said, trying to hide the tears from my voice. I didn't want to look like a wimp in front of my friend.

"I'm sorry, Lucas, but you're a really bad liar" the former Lucario said, clearly trying not to laugh. "I mean, look at you. You look _pathetic_ ".

"In what way?" I asked him. "I never thought that you would be one to find a problem with my appearance".

"Lucas, you're losing weight. Your hair is more unkempt than it was before. And, from what little aura I still have, I know that you're depressed".

I saw no reason to lie to someone who knew whether or not I was lying. To someone I trusted, and who trusted me.

"Yes, Samuel, I haven't been in the best mood lately" I replied. "There are just so many things that make me not very happy. For instance, there's the fact that we're not questing anymore".

"And that depresses you? Lucas, there were times we almost _died_!" Samuel all but bellowed. "You're not happy to be back at home? Seriously, Lucas, what are you thinking?"

This wasn't going the way I had wanted it to go. I had hoped that Samuel was going to see my side, and would agree with me that there was reason for me to be sad. However, the way this conversation was going, I didn't think that the former Lucario was going to have that much sympathy for me.

"I just...feel like I want to go on an adventure again" I finally admitted. "It's like there's something within me that wants to go out and do something risky again. Where _would_ the fun be without a little risk? That's what I want to know".

"Now I see what you mean" Samuel said to me. "And, I have to say, there are a lot of things I might say to you in order to try and cheer you up. First off, do you have a lot of good memories from our quest?"

"I do" I replied. "There were plenty of bad things, but you have to take the bad with the good, you know?"

"I understand. Still, though, it's not like we'll never see Malcolm or Garfield again. Or Eric; I'm sure that you're a fan of that guy, right?"

"Of course I am!" I exclaimed. "The guy taught me illusions, are you kidding? There's no way I wouldn't be a fan of him!"

"Well, I'm sure that we could convince your father to let us visit them over the Christmas vacation. He doesn't seem to be a helicopter parent, for having known him for the last two months or so".

"In that sense, he's really not that bad" I said. "Indeed, he's sometimes apathetic, which is almost worse, you know? That night we got back…" I almost cried.

"It's okay, man, let them fall" Samuel said, noticing that I was starting to sob. For someone of my age and height, it should not have been possible to be witnessed crying, but Samuel was being great about it, handing me a box of tissues.

I was glad that my father was still at work; it was one of those nights that his job required him to work late. Had he been at home, I worried that he would have snapped at me, since I was complaining about him.

Caleb London could be a good guy at times, but he was also a world-class jerk at times. It was something I had had to accept, growing up.

"Samuel...I don't know where I'd be without you" I said, using a tissue the former Lucario had given me in order to wipe the tears off of my face. "You saved me...you _saved_ me. All those times in the last few weeks, you being there has made things more tolerable. I'm telling you, I don't care if you _marry_ Michelle, I'm moving away from here the second I graduate high school. Could Eric help get me a visa to live near him?"

"You'd live near Malcolm's village?"

"I'd live _in_ Malcolm's village, Samuel. I feel that that's the life I want to have. A lot of things have happened to me that have kind of sucked, but my life wouldn't be what it is today without the village".

"You mean, it wouldn't suck?" Samuel asked, nudging me lightly in the ribs.

"I guess" I said. "But there were plenty of good things that came from that, too. For instance, I found out that you're one of the best friends I could ever have".

"Maybe even future brother-in-law" the former Lucario said, winking behind his glasses.

"You mean you're going to marry Michelle?" I asked him. I wasn't sure that I was even being serious, or if he was, but I found the prospect pretty crazy. I was glad that the decision probably hadn't been made yet.

"Well, we're getting more and more comfortable with each other" Samuel replied. "We haven't made any concrete decisions yet, but you know that it's a possibility. Of course, Michelle's not old enough to be married, and I doubt that your dad would give his consent".

"You're probably right" I said, sighing.

In spite of all of that, when I went to bed that night, I felt a little better. I knew that, no matter what was happening, I did have one reliable friend to count on.

* * *

 **ERIC'S POV**

Winter in the valley that contained the village that Malcolm, Garfield, and myself lived in was serious business.

It started early, with gale-force winds slamming the village's houses. Luckily, they rarely collapsed. Even though they were rustic, the homes that families such as the Greenlakes lived in were built extremely well, to withstand nearly anything.

Most Zoroark families holed up inside when the blizzards came, but not the Greenlakes. Malcolm, getting used to his new body as a Zoroark, was ambling about the village, walking into a lot of stores, and buying food for his family. And, since I lived fairly close to him, Malcolm and I became quite good friends despite the difference in age.

During the same month that I celebrated my 35th birthday, Malcolm celebrated his eleventh. Since they were within a week of each other, we decided to have a party together. Carla baked a large red velvet cake with black frosting, the same color scheme as a Zoroark.

That was back in November. Now, it was late December; indeed, it was Christmas Eve, and I was in charge of some of the grunt work, delivering decorations to the various homes with Zoroarks that weren't able to leave their homes.

Even though the early blizzards had stopped a few days ago, there was one heading in tonight. Those who were able bought groceries for some other families, and that was the way the whole village ran. Every family probably knew most of the others, and they helped each other out when hard times came upon them. Using that fundamental societal rule, helping those who could not help themselves, the village had managed to sustain itself for over a century.

I walked along the avenue. I never thought I'd meet Malcolm Greenlake, standing just outside of the Lucario Lounge. Even though there were hundreds of Zoroarks in the village, there was just something about Malcolm that made him very recognizable. It wasn't something I could place to a specific thing, but it was there, and I could still sense a certain _youthfulness_ within Malcolm.

"Hello" I said. "You are Malcolm Greenlake, correct?"

"That's right" the young Zoroark said. "And I'm just going on a walk".

Was there an ulterior motive behind those words? It was my job to protect this village, and I knew that I could trust Malcolm; after all, he was still only a child. Even so, I couldn't help but throw up some mental defenses against him.

"Do you want anything from me?" I asked him.

"Yes" Malcolm said.

I got the feeling that I knew what that was going to be. The same thing I had helped a young man with, three months ago, when he had only _temporarily_ been a Zoroark. Malcolm was going to be in this body permanently, as far as I knew.

"Do you want me to teach you illusions?" I asked him.

"What do you think? That I want to have Zorua kids and _not_ know how to do illusions? Of **course** I want to learn illusions!"

"Sounds good. Your parents have given you permission to be out here at this time, is that correct?"

"It is" Malcolm said, in a tone of voice that said to me that he was probably telling the truth.

"Very well, then" I said. "Let's do this".

* * *

Forty minutes later, we were at the top of the hill on which I had taught Lucas the same skill that I was about to teach Malcolm. It was really quite a beautiful place. The small lake in the distance was frozen from the winter's cold, but anyone who stepped out on it would most likely be dancing on thin ice.

"All right, Malcolm. You want to know how to become another Pokemon, is that correct?"

"Oh, yeah!" the rambunctious Zoroark exclaimed. Almost immediately after he said that, I felt a little bit like I was regretting making this decision. This guy might just be a little _too_ energetic for this. Malcolm was shaking, and I got the feeling that it wasn't from the cold. He had a pretty good coat of fur there.

"First things first", I said, "you need to remember that you are not going to simply transform into another Pokemon. You're going to keep your current body, but you are not going to be an Eevee, for instance. Maybe you should start small, picture yourself as that".

"Okay" Malcolm said. He lowered his body closer to the ground, as if he really was an Eevee.

"Now picture yourself as one. Be as descriptive as possible. What color is your fur, and how much will you change in size? In short, what are you going to look like as an Eevee?"

Malcolm seemed to be focusing very hard, to the point that he began wobbling. Eventually, he literally fainted against the ground, causing a miniature ground blizzard equivalent to a skier doing a hockey stop in a large amount of powder.

I chuckled. This was going to take a while, I thought, as I stared at the unconscious Zoroark on the ground.

After Malcolm came to, I made sure that he ate some snow for water, as I hadn't brought any. Normally, in a survival situation, eating snow would dehydrate you, but since Malcolm was a Zoroark, it would have the opposite effect. It was something about their anatomy that I had never been bothered to learn the specifics of.

"All right" I said. "You focused too hard. Do you want to try again?"

"No" he said. "I'm feeling pretty tired".

I tried to persuade Malcolm to give it another go, but I eventually decided to let it go. There really was no reason to push him, I realized on our way back down the hill.

Much like the snow on the hills was shining in the morning sun, I realized that the same was true of the young Zoroark. Much like Malcolm, the sun was only going to come out when it was ready to, when the storm clouds that had caused the blizzard were ready to finally move out, allowing the sun to come in and warm everything up again.

He'd learn when he was ready. Besides, it wasn't as though there was an evil organization after him.

Looking south, past all of the pine trees, I saw the one field that Lucas had once unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate, with embarrassing results. I saw a tiny purple glow that was localized to one specific area of that field, one very small area.

And I knew, with absolute certainty, that this was where the flower had been. We'd gone through so much, both causes and effects of this flower, and things would be so different otherwise. And yet, now that I had had that proper taste of adventure, and met so many great people, I knew that I wouldn't have it any other way.

Beyond all that, looking past all of the snowy hills, at the coming storm clouds that would be hitting the village tonight, one thought penetrated my consciousness like no other.

Where was Lucas London now?

* * *

 **And that is curtains on Zoroark's Pendant. I may not have reached my exact goal of an average of five thousand words per chapter, but I got pretty close. Pretty damn close.**

 **It has been an incredible journey, as this has become my most successful story on this site, with, as of Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 1:20 PM EDT, almost forty favorites and more than fifty followers. This would not have been the same story without people like Insomniac98338 and Zaravan, who gave me Kieran and Garfield, respectively. Since I killed two of Zaravan's OCs in the Wing And A Scare trilogy, I figured that it would be rather a good idea to keep this one alive.**

 **With that, SnowLucario is out of here!**


End file.
